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JESUS    CHRIST    AND    THE 
CHRISTIAN  CHARACTER 


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JESUS   CHRIST   AND   THE 
CHRISTIAN  CHARACTER 


AN  EXAMINATION  OF  THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS  IN 

ITS  RELATION  TO  SOME  OF  THE  MORAL 

PROBLEMS  OF  PERSONAL  LIFE 


BY 


FRANCIS   GREENWOOD   fEABODY 

PLUMMER   PROFESSOR   OF    CHRISTIAN    MORALS 
IN    HARVARD   UNIVERSITY 


THE  LYMAN  BEECHER  LECTURES 

AT   YALE    UNIVERSLTY 

1904 


Nefo  gorft 
THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

LONDON:  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Ltd. 
1908 

All  rights  reserved 


(6SZHI7 


mimt 


Copyright,  1905, 
By  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  November,  1905. 
Reprinted  June,  1906  ;  July,  1908. 


KorfaoolJ  $res« 

J.  8.  Cushing  &  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 

Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


MY  DARLING  BOY,   SO   EARLY  SNATCHED  AWAY 

FROM  ARMS   STILL  SEEKING  THEE  IN  EMPTY  AIR, 

THAT  THOU   SHOULDST  COME  TO   ME  I   DO   NOT  PRAY, 
LEST,  BY  THY  COMING,   HEAVEN   SHOULD   BE  LESS  FAIR. 

STAY,   RATHER,   IN   PERENNIAL  FLOWER  OF  YOUTH, 
SUCH  AS  THE  MASTER,   LOOKING  ON,   MUST  LOVE; 

AND   SEND  TO   ME  THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  TRUTH, 
TO  TEACH   ME  OF  THE  WISDOM   FROM  ABOVE. 

BECKON  TO  GUIDE  MY  THOUGHTS,  AS  STUMBLINGLY 
THEY  SEEK  THE  KINGDOM  OF  THE  UNDEFILED; 

AND    MEET   ME  AT  ITS   GATEWAY   WITH   THY   KEY, 

THE  UNSTAINED   SPIRIT  OF  A  LITTLE  CHILD. 


184812 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

PAGB 

The  Modern  World  and  the  Christian  Character     .        i 

CHAPTER  II 
The  Character  of  Jesus  Christ 39 

CHAPTER  III 
The  Roots  of  the  Christian  Character  .        .        .       .71 

CHAPTER    IV 
The  Growth  of  the  Christian  Character     .        .        .112 

CHAPTER  V 

The  Personal  Consequences  of  the  Christian  Char- 
acter      154 

CHAPTER  VI 

The  Social  Consequences  of  the  Christian  Character     196 

CHAPTER  VII 
The  Ascent  of  Ethics 234 

CHAPTER  VIII 

The  Descent  of  Faith 265 

rii 


JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN 
CHARACTER 


CHAPTER  I 

THE    MODERN    WORLD    AND    THE    CHRISTIAN 
CHARACTER 

In  another  volume1  the  teaching  of  Jesus  has 
been  considered  in  its  relation  to  some  of  the 
problems  of  modern  social  life.  It  is  an  inquiry 
which,  in  one  form  or  another,  forces  itself  upon 
every  mind  which  has,  on  the  one  hand,  any  rev- 
erence for  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  and,  on  the  other, 
any  understanding  of  the  present  age.  This  is  the 
age  of  the  Social  Question.  Never  before  were 
so  many  people  concerned  with  problems  of  social 
amelioration  and  programmes  of  social  transfor- 
mation; never  before  were  social  solutions  so 
freely  proposed  or  social  panaceas  so  confidently 
prescribed.  Social  institutions  which  for  centuries 
have  been  assumed  to  be  rooted  in  human  nature 
or  ordained  of  God  are  frankly  discussed  as  social 
expedients  or  experiments,  to  be  reformed,  trans- 
formed, or  abolished.  Is  the  institution  of  the 
family  to  survive   the   present  movement   toward 

1  "Jesus  Christ  and  the  Social  Question,"  Macmillan,  1900. 
b  1 


2         JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

disruption  ?  Is  the  institution  of  private  property 
to  be  maintained  among  the  economic  changes  of 
the  future  ?  Is  the  new  social  order  to  arrive  by 
peaceful  processes  of  evolution,  or  must  the  pain 
and  travail  of  social  revolution  attend  the  birth 
of  a  better  world  ?  —  such  are  the  questions  which 
confront  all  thoughtful  persons  who  observe  the 
signs  of  the  times. 

A  similar  change  in  the  centre  of  gravity  is 
to  be  observed  within  the  Christian  Church. 
Where  the  mind  of  the  Church  was  once  absorbed 
by  questions  of  doctrine,  it  is  now  devoted  to 
questions  of  practice ;  and  instead  of  a  sur- 
vival of  controversies  concerning  God,  there  is-  a 
revival  of  devotion  to  the  service  of  man.  Chris* 
tian  convocations  which  were  once  preoccupied 
with  definitions  of  orthodoxy  and  refutations  of 
heresy  are  now  discussing  the  relation  of  the 
Church  to  the  family,  the  duty  of  the  Church  to 
the  hand-workers,  the  application  of  the  Church 
to  philanthropy,  the  missionary  opportunity  of  the 
Church.  A  distinguished  preacher  of  the  last 
generation,  being  asked  whether  Christianity  was 
outgrown,  answered  that,  on  the  contrary,  it  had 
never  been  tried.  The  present  age  is  making  this 
trial  of  Christianity.  The  mighty  wind  of  the 
Social  Question  has  swept  through  the  Church,  as 
through  the  world,  with  cleansing  and  refreshing 
force,  and  has  swept  away  the  barriers  which  once 
divided  worship  from  work,  the  single  life  from 
the  social  order,  the  love  of  God  from  the  love  of 


THE   MODERN   WORLD  3 

man,  the  salvation  of  the  soul  from  the  salvation  of 
the  world.     It  is  the  age  of  the  Social  Question.1 

At  such  a  time  one  is  inevitably  led  to  examine 
afresh  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  and  to  consider  the 
applicability  of  that  teaching  to  modern  social  life. 
Has  a  teacher  so  remote  from  the  circumstances  of 
the  modern  world  any  message  to  give  which  that 
world  should  hear  ?  Is  there  in  the  Gospels,  be- 
sides their  personal  and  religious  inspiration,  a 
social  teaching  which  is  still  timely  and  significant  ? 
Many  a  modern  mind  which  had  almost  abandoned 
interest  in  the  Christian  religion  is  drawn  back  to 
it  by  such  questions  as  these.  The  theology  of 
Christianity  has  lost  its  grasp  on  great  numbers  of 
such  lives  ;  the  ecclesiastical  claims  of  the  various 
sects  have  become  simply  uninteresting  ;  the  piety 
of  the  Christian  mystic  has  retreated  before  the 
demands  of  the  busy  world ;  but  the  world  itself, 
with  its  unredeemed  masses,  its  unsolved  problems, 
its  cry  for  help,  is  of  unprecedented  and  dramatic 
concern ;  and  those  who  stand,  as  it  were,  on  the 
shore  of  the  present  age  and  watch  the  social  life 
of  the  time,  drifting  like  a  rudderless  vessel  with- 
out course  or  helmsman,  turn  with  a  pathetic  eager- 

*So,  Kidd,  "Social  Evolution,"  1894,  pp.  13,  14:  "We  are 
beginning  to  hear  from  many  quarters  that  the  social  question  is 
at  bottom  a  religious  question,  and  that  to  its  solution  it  behoves 
the  Churches  in  the  interests  of  society  to  address  themselves.  .  .  . 
We  have  the  note  sounded  in  various  keys,  that,  after  all,  Chris- 
tianity was  intended  to  save  not  only  men  but  man,  and  that  its 
mission  should  be  to  teach  us  not  only  how  to  die  as  individuals 
but  how  to  live  as  members  of  society." 


4         JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

ness  to  Jesus  Christ,  as  to  a  pilot  who  is  at  home 
in  this  uncharted  and  perilous  sea. 

When  one  turns  with  this  new  problem  to  the 
Gospels,  he  discovers  with  fresh  surprise  the  ex- 
traordinary richness  and  variety  of  the  teaching 
of  Jesus.  Each  period  in  history  goes  with  its 
question  to  the  simple  record,  and  finds  an  an- 
swer which  seems  written  to  meet  the  special 
problem  of  the  time.  In  an  age  of  theology  the 
Gospels  were  a  source  of  theological  doctrine ;  in 
an  age  of  ecclesiasticism  they  fortified  the  Church ; 
in  an  age  of  emotionalism  they  kindled  the  flame 
of  piety.  The  same  adaptability  is  now  discovered 
once  more  by  the  age  of  the  Social  Question.  As 
others  have  found  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  the  key 
of  doctrine  or  organization  or  religious  experience, 
so  there  is  now  delivered  by  the  same  teaching  to 
the  mind  of  the  present  age  a  key  of  the  Social 
Question.  Remote  from  the  condition  of  the 
modern  world  as  was  the  life  of  Jesus,  and  pri- 
marily directed  as  was  his  teaching,  not  to  social 
but  to  spiritual  ends,  he  has  much  to  say  of  social 
duty.  His  ethics  are  not  individualist,  atomic,  a 
doctrine  of  the  single  soul ;  but  organic,  social,  a 
doctrine  of  the  common  life. 

This  characteristic  gives,  indeed,  to  the  whole 
Bible  its  freshness,  contemporaneousness,  and 
applicability.  The  Bible  is  not  only  a  book  of 
life,  but  a  book  of  life  in  common.  "The 
Bible,"  said  John  Wesley,  "knows  nothing  of  a 
solitary  religion."     The  stream  of  the  Bible  story 


THE   MODERN    WORLD  5 

flows  not  only  through  quiet  places  of  personal 
experience,  but  also  through  a  world  of  social 
relationships,  as  a  great  river  runs  through  chang- 
ing scenes  of  town  and  country,  society  and 
solitude,  light  and  shade.  One  who  embarks  on 
its  current  finds  himself  floating  down  through 
political  changes,  national  problems,  social  reforms, 
the  sins  and  repentances  of  Israel,  the  needs  and 
hopes  of  the  Gentile  world,  until  at  last  this  social 
teaching  issues  into  the  broad,  calm  current  of  the 
message  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  was  not  an  accident, 
therefore,  that  when  Jesus  announced  the  purpose 
of  his  mission,  he  defined  it  in  the  language  of  the 
ancient  but  still  effective  Law ; *  still  less  was  it 
an  accident  that  this  law  was  social  as  well  as 
religious,  the  love  of  one's  neighbor  as  well  as  the 
love  of  God ;  least  of  all  was  it  an  accident  that 
Jesus  said  of  these  two  laws,  one  religious,  and  one 
social,  that  the  second  was  like  the  first.  The  so- 
cial teaching  of  Jesus  was  the  corollary  from  his 
religious  faith.  The  love  of  God  involved  the  love 
of  one's  neighbor  as  one's  self. 

In  one  of  the  most  striking  of  his  parables 
Jesus  commits  himself  unreservedly  to  this  social 
mission.  Standing  among  the  grain  fields  of 
Palestine,  which  had  often  seemed  to  him  the 
symbol  of  his  work,  he  speaks  not  only  of  the 
grain,  the  soil,  and  the  sower,  but  of  the  scope 
and  horizon  of  his  hope.  The  field,  he  says, 
is  not  restricted,  fenced   in,  local,   national;   the 

1  Deut.  vi.  5;  and  Lev.  xix.  18. 


6         JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

field  is  the  world.1  His  message  is  not  personal 
only,  as  in  the  parable  of  the  soil  and  the  seed, 
but  comprehensive,  expansive,  universal.  Beyond 
the  Palestinian  valleys,  beyond  the  mountains  that 
shut  in  the  North,  and  the  strip  of  sea  touched 
with  the  Western  light,  stretched  the  field  of  his 
social  dream.  "  Neither  pray  I  for  these  alone," 
says  the  fourth  Gospel  in  the  same  spirit,  "but 
for  them  also  which  shall  believe  on  me  through 
their  word.  For  their  sakes  I  sanctify  myself."2  It 
was  the  comprehensive,  generous  dream  of  a  conse- 
crated society.     The  field  is  the  world.3 

It  may  be  not  unreasonably  urged  that,  in  this 
transfer  of  interest,  there  is  grave  danger  of  mis- 
interpreting the  teaching  of  Jesus.  He  was,  we 
are  reminded,  not  a  social  agitator,  but  a  religious 
teacher ;  not  a  reformer,  but  a  Revealer ;  not  pri- 
marily concerned  with  social  conditions,  but  with  the 
life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man.  His  social  ideal  was 
not  of  an  industrial  order,  but  of  a  Kingdom  of 
God.  Whatever  his  social  teaching  may  have  been, 
it  was  but  a  by-product  of  his  religious  mission. 
All  this  is  obviously  true;  and  no  misinterpreta- 
tion of  the  Gospels  is  more  superficial  than  that 
which  describes  the  work  of  Jesus  as  essentially  that 
of  a  labor  leader,  an  anarchist,  or  a  social  revolu- 
tionist4    It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  a 

1  Matt.  xiii.  38.  2  John  xvii.  19,  20. 

8  Compare  also  Homiletic  Review,  May,  1904,  pp.  330  ff.  F.  G. 
Peabody,  "  The  Social  Teaching  of  Jesus  Christ." 

*  Renan,   "  Marc-Aurele,"    1882,  p.   598:    "  Le    christianisme 


THE   MODERN   WORLD  7 

by-product,  though  in  itself  subordinate,  may  have 
peculiar  adaptability  to  certain  conditions  and 
needs;  and  even  though  the  social  teaching  of 
Jesus  be  not  his  supreme  concern,  it  may  be  an 
aspect  of  his  message  which  for  the  moment  claims 
attention.  There  are*  many  paths  which  lead  to 
the  understanding  of  Jesus;  but  the  path  of  his 
social  teaching  is,  for  the  present  age,  the  path 
which  is  most  open.  Here  is  where  the  thought 
of  the  time  happens  to  be.  The  foreground  of 
human  interest  is  for  the  present  occupied  by 
social  problems,  and  the  way  to  any  contemporary 
interpretation  of  the  Christian  religion  is  not  to 
be  found  by  going  round  the  Social  Question,  but 
by  going  through  it.  It  is,  therefore,  quite  super- 
fluous to  consider  whether  there  may  not  be  other 
ways  which  might  lead  more  directly  to  the  truth 
of  the  Gospels.  What  must  be  frankly  recog- 
nized is  the  fact  that  a  new  way  of  approach  is 

fut,  avant  tout,  une  immense  revolution  economique."  "Vie 
de  Jesus,"  13th  edition,  1867,  p.  133:  "Une  immense  revo- 
lution sociale,  ou  les  rangs  seront  intervertis,  .  .  .  voila  son  reve." 
So,  Nitti,  "Catholic  Socialism,"  1895,  PP«  58  ff-:  "Poverty  was  an 
indispensable  condition  for  gaining  admission  to  the  kingdom  of 
heaven."  Rade,  "  Die  sittlich-religiose  Gedankenwelt  unsrer  In- 
dustrie-Arbeiter,"  9th  Evang.  Soz.  Kongress,  1898,  ss.  103  ff. : 
"  Christ  was  a  revolutionist,  like  thousands  now  living."  "  A  true 
friend  of  working  people,  not  with  lips  alone,  like  his  followers, 
but  with  deeds."  "  He  was  persecuted  as  the  Social  Democrats 
are  persecuted  now."  "  To-day  he  would  have  been  the  greatest 
of  socialists."  Compare  H.  Kohler,  "  Sozialistische  Irrlehren  von 
der  Entstehung  des  Christentums,"  1899,  ss-  9~10;  and  F.  G.  Pea- 
body,  "  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Social  Question,"  p.  26,  note ;  p.  65. 


8         JESUS    CHRIST    AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

prescribed  by  the  conditions  of  the  time.  Other 
paths  open  before  the  thought  of  other  generations  ; 
but  straight  before  the  age  of  the  Social  Question 
lies  the  social  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ.  The 
modern  mind  must  start  from  the  point  where  it  is, 
and  must  proceed  by  its  own  path  to  its  own  form 
of  Christian  loyalty  and  service. 

When,  however,  one  frankly  commits  himself  to 
this  recognition  of  social  redemption  as  the  im- 
mediate problem,  both  of  the  world  and  of  the 
Church,  a  further  question  presents  itself  to  which 
the  age  of  the  Social  Question  is  now  called  to 
reply.  Though  it  be  true,  as  the  title  of  a  book, 
which  is  itself  a  sign  of  the  times,  affirms,  that 
the  world  is  the  subject  of  redemption,1  it  is  still 
left  to  inquire  what  shall  be  the  means  of  that  re- 
demption, and  what  instrument  of  social  service 
can  be  permanently  effective.  Here  is  a  question 
which  must  be  answered  before  a  campaign  of 
social  service  can  be  wisely  undertaken.  It  is  in 
vain  to  enter  upon  a  modern  war  until  one  is 
equipped  with  modern  weapons.  It  is  impossible 
to  redeem  the  world  without  a  well-considered 
plan  of  redemption.  What,  then,  is  the  weapon  of 
social  amelioration  which  must  be  antecedently 
provided  before  the  age  of  the  Social  Question 
can  fulfil  its  task  ? 

No  sooner  does  one  ask  this  question  than  he 
is  confronted  by  two  theories  of  social  progress, 

1  Fremantle,  "  The  World  as  the  Subject  of  Redemption," 
2d  edition,  1895. 


THE    MODERN    WORLD  9 

which  are  often  regarded  as  irreconcilable  com- 
petitors. Social  amelioration  may  be  sought,  on 
the  one  hand,  through  external,  mechanical,  and 
economic  change ;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  through 
spiritual,  ethical,  personal  renewal.  It  is  the 
perennial  issue  between  environment  and  person- 
ality, the  world  and  the  individual.  Does  the 
world  make  the  person,  or  does  the  person  make 
his  world  ?  Is  personality  the  product  of  circum- 
stances or  are  circumstances  the  instrument  of 
personality?  Is  the  secret  of  social  progress  to 
be  found  in  better  social  conditions,  or  are  such 
conditions  unredemptive  unless  met  by  better 
men  ? 

The  first  answer  now  offered  to  this  question 
is  the  answer  of  externalism.  The  Social  Ques- 
tion has  been  interpreted  as  a  consequence  of 
external  maladjustments,  and  relief  has  been  sought 
by  revolutionizing  the  conditions  which  are  de- 
humanizing and  unjust.  How  can  people,  it  is 
asked,  become  better  in  character,  if  they  are  not 
better  fed  and  housed  and  clad  ?  How  can  the  soul 
be  saved  if  the  body  is  starved  ?  The  Social  Ques- 
tion, it  is  urged,  is  a  "  Stomach  Question."  "Man 
ist  was  er  isst."  Conditions  create  character. 
Change  the  conditions  of  industrial  life,  establish  a 
living  wage,  supplant  the  rule  of  the  capitalist  by 
the  rule  of  the  hand-worker,  create  circumstances 
fit  for  a  human  life,  and  the  better  human  life  will 
spring  out  of  the  better  soil. 

This  answer  of   externalism  was  soon  fortified 


10      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

by  the  philosophy  of  socialism.  The  spiritual 
condition  of  any  civilization,  it  was  taught,  is 
the  corollary  of  its  economic  system.  Given  the 
industrial  order  of  a  land  or  time,  and  one  may 
prophesy  what  shall  be  its  ethics  or  art  or 
domestic  life  or  religion.  Character  is  the  product 
of  circumstances.  Social  revolution  must  precede 
ethical  progress.  "  Religion  is  a  mirror  in  which 
is  reflected  the  prevailing  social  condition.  As 
society  develops  religion  is  transformed.  .  .  . 
Both  religious  and  moral  conceptions  spring  from 
the  contemporary  circumstances  of  human  life."  1 
"The  bourgeois  moralist  .  .  .  holds  fast  to  the 
old  fallacious  standpoint,  according  to  which  in- 
dividual good  men  make  healthy  social  condi- 
tions, rather  than  acknowledge  the  truth  that  it  is 
healthy  social  conditions  which  make  good  men."  2 
Abolish,  therefore,  the  institution  of  private  prop- 
erty, transform  the  machinery  of  society,  emanci- 
pate women  from  domestic  bondage ;  and  from 
the  new  circumstances  thus  created  will  emerge 
new  moral  capacity,  as  surely  as  the  moral  degra- 
dation and  social  discontent  of  the  present  time 
have  been  the  consequences  of  the  competitive 
system.3 

1  Bebel,  "Die  Frau  und  der  Sozialismus,"  1891,  ss.  314,  315. 

2  Bax,  "The  Religion  of  Socialism,"  1886,  p.x:  " Socialism  breaks 
through  these  shams  in  protesting  that  no  amount  of  determination 
on  the  part  of  the  individual  to  regenerate  himself  .  .  .  will  of 
itself  affect  in  aught  the  welfare  of  Society." 

3  Marx,  "Zur  Kritik  der  polit.  Oekonomie,"  1859,  Vorwort, 
s.  xi :  "  The  form  of  material  production  is  the  general  cause  of 


THE    MODERN    WORLD  H 

There  is  unquestionably  much  in  the  modern 
world  which  appears  to  justify  this  application  to 
society  of  the  philosophy  of  materialism.  Many 
conditions  of  modern  life  are  almost  prohibitive  of 
morality.  Precepts  of  chastity  are  mocking  words 
to  dwellers  in  one-room  tenements ;  exhortations 
to  patience  find  few  listeners  when  children  are 
hungry  and  work  is  slack.  Many  processes  of 
modern  industry  convert  the  worker  into  a  de- 
humanized fragment  of  the  machine  at  which  he 
works.  The  moralization  of  industry  is  an  essen- 
tial part  of  the  Social  Question.  It  does  not,  how- 
ever, follow  from  these  solemn  facts  that  the  only 
key  of  social  progress  must  be  found  in  external 
changes,  or  that  favoring  conditions  are  sure  to 
make  good  men.  On  the  contrary,  most  great 
transitions  in  social  welfare  have  occurred,  not 
through  mechanical,  external,  or  economic  changes, 

social,  political,  and  spiritual  processes.  It  is  not  consciousness 
which  determines  conditions,  but,  on  the  contrary,  social  condi- 
tions which  determine  consciousness."  Compare  Bernstein,  "  Die 
Voraussetzungen  des  Sozialismus,"  1 899,  s.  5;  and  Masaryk,  "Die 
phil.  und  sociol.  Grundlagen  des  Marxismus,"  1899,  s.  93.  So  also 
J.  A.  Hobson,  "The  Social  Problem,"  1901,  p.  140:  "To  preach 
that  each  individual  can,  by  his  own  private  conduct,  contribute  to 
the  solution  of  a  social  problem  is  a  barren  gospel."  C.  H.  Kerr, 
"The  Central  Thing  in  Socialism,"  p.  1 :  "  Tell  me  how  you  get  what 
you  eat  and  I  will  tell  you  what  you  are.  In  other  words,  the  laws 
and  customs  of  a  people  in  any  stage  whatever,  .  .  .  grow  out  of 
the  way  in  which  the  people  get  their  food,  clothing,  and  shelter." 
The  issue  is  clearly  described  by  Arndt,  "  Die  Religion  der  Sozialde- 
mokratie,"  1892,  ss.  9  ff.,  with  many  references.  See  also  "Jesus 
Christ  and  the  Social  Question,"  p.  18,  with  references. 


12      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

but  through  personal  initiative,  moral  or  intellec- 
tual leadership,  mastery  of  circumstances  by  force 
of  character.  The  story  of  Christianity,  of  Protes- 
tantism, of  Greece,  of  Germany,  of  New  England, 
is  not  one  of  favoring  conditions  accepted,  but  of 
hostile  conditions  conquered,  the  victory  of  the 
mind  or  will  or  conscience  over  the  flesh  or  the 
world. 

If  this  be  true  of  history,  it  is  still  more 
obviously  true  of  the  social  movement  which  char- 
acterizes the  present  age.  The  social  ferment  of 
the  time  is  most  inadequately  described  when  it  is 
regarded  as  the  sheer  consequence  of  evil  condi- 
tions, or  as  proceeding  altogether  from  material 
desires ;  and  it  is  one  of  the  most  unfortunate  acci- 
dents of  history  that  a  philosophy  derived  from 
Neo-Hegelian  materialism  should  have  filtered 
down  into  the  popular  creed  and  have  obscured 
the  real  nature  of  the  working-class  movement.1 
What  gives  pathos  and  power  to  the  modern  Social 
Question  is  not  the  economic  programme  which  it 
proposes,  but  the  human  note  which  it  utters,  of 
sympathy,  pity,  justice,  brotherhood,  unity.  The 
sense  of  discontent  is  most  conspicuous,  not  where 

1  F.  Engels,  "  Ludwig  Feuerbach  u.  der  Ausgang  der  deutschen 
klassischen  Philosophic,"  1888,  s.68:  "The  German  workingmen's 
movement  is  the  heir  of  the  German  classic  philosophy."  Schaffie, 
"  The  Impossibility  of  Social  Democracy,"  tr.  1892,  pp.  32,  33 :  "  Its 
philosophy  is  in  reality  the  offspring  of  the  subjective  speculation 
of  Hegel.  Three  important  Socialists  were  followers  of  this 
philosopher's  school,  Marx,  Lassalle,  and  Proudhon.  .  .  .  But  the 
grass  has  long  grown  upon  the  grave  of  Hegelianism." 


THE    MODERN    WORLD  13 

social  conditions  are  at  their  worst,  but  where  they 
are  at  their  best ;  not  in  Turkey  and  Egypt,  but  in 
Western  Europe  and  the  United  States.  It  is  not 
an  evidence  that  people  have  less,  but  an  evidence 
that  they  think  and  feel  more.  It  proceeds,  not 
from  the  decrease  of  possessions,  but  from  the  in- 
crease of  desires.  The  Social  Question  is  the 
demand  of  human  beings  for  a  more  humanized 
life,  a  "  Menschenwiirdiges  Dasein"  It  is  the 
protest  of  character  against  conditions,  rather  than 
the  pressure  of  conditions  on  character.  Within 
the  Social  Question,  that  is  to  say,  mechanical  and 
material  though  it  may  seem  to  be,  lie  ethical 
questions  of  duty,  compassion,  humanity,  service, 
which  are  the  signs,  not  of  a  degenerating  social 
order,  but  of  a  regenerated  social  conscience.  The 
truth  of  history  is  precisely  reversed  when  it  is 
affirmed  that  economic  changes  must  invariably 
precede  moral  progress.  Ethical  education,  per- 
sonal character,  and  intellectual  initiative  are  much 
more  likely  to  create  the  demand  for  social  change. 
The  Social  Question  meets  civilization,  not  on  its 
way  down  but  on  its  way  up. 

There  is  a  further  aspect  of  the  modern  situation 
which  is  equally  significant.  The  special  attention 
which  has  been  for  two  generations  devoted  to 
external  and  mechanical  progress,  whether  in 
industry  or  politics,  philanthropy  or  religion,  has 
had  as  its  result  a  disproportionate  development 
of  machinery  and  of  men.  *  This  faith  in  mech- 
anism," said  Carlyle,  in  1829,    "has   now  struck 


14      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

its  roots  deep  into  men's  most  intimate,  primary 
sources  of  conviction.  ...  By  arguing  on  the 
force  of  circumstances  we  have  argued  all  force 
from  ourselves  and  stand  leashed  together,  uniform 
in  dress  and  movement,  like  the  rowers  of  some 
boundless  galley."  2  Organizations,  consolidations, 
combinations,  federations,  we  have  in  prodigal 
abundance,  and  the  wheels  of  the  social  world 
revolve  with  a  speed  and  smoothness  never  before 
attained;  but  the  age  of  machinery  has  brought 
with  it  a  new  demand  for  persons  competent  to 
control  the  intricate  mechanism  of  a  new  world. 
Civilization  has  had  the  skill  to  harness  social 
forces  which  it  has  not  had  the  time  to  tame ;  and 
it  is  by  no  means  certain  whether  the  present  age 
can  control  the  runaway  steeds  which  it  is  com- 
pelled to  drive.  The  pace  of  modern  life  demands 
at  every  point  new  alertness,  new  sobriety,  new 
integrity,  in  those  who  administer  its  affairs ;  and 
the  need  of  the  time  is  not  so  much  for  better 
social  machinery  as  for  competent  social  engineers. 
A  science  of  poor-relief  has  been  devised,  but  where 
are  the  persons  equipped  with  the  sagacity  and 
sympathy  to  utilize  that  science  ?  Vast  aggrega- 
tions of  capital  are  created,  but  where  are  the  dis- 
interestedness and  integrity  to  convert  new  forms 
of  industry  into  new  instruments  of  social  peace  ? 
An  army  of  hand-workers  is  organized  for  war,  but 
where  is  the  incorruptible  leadership  without  which 
an  army  becomes  a  mob  ? 

1  "Signs  of  the  Times,"  Miscellaneous  Essays,  II,  162,  168. 


THE    MODERN   WORLD  1 5 

In  Plato's  famous  parable1  of  spiritual  experi- 
ence, two  horses,  one  "noble  and  of  noble  origin," 
the  other  "  ignoble  and  of  ignoble  origin,"  draw 
the  chariot  of  the  soul.  One  steed  is  ever  eager 
to  mount,  the  other  wishes  to^descend,  and  the 
charioteer  who  guides  these  divergent  passions 
keeps  his  course  by  fixing  his  eye  on  the  "  color- 
less, formless,  and  intangible  essence  .  .  .  which 
is  the  only  lord  of  the  soul."  Looking  up  to 
his  ideal,  the  driver  controls  his  errant  steeds ; 
and  "feeding  on  the  sight  of  truth  is  replen- 
ished." It  is  a  picture  of  the  conflicting  forces 
which  threaten  disaster  to  the  hurrying  life  of  the 
modern  world,  if  the  soul  of  the  time  shall  fail  to 
master  the  forces  which  it  is  called  upon  to  drive. 
The  Social  Question  is  not  one  of  alternative 
theories  of  progress,  as  though  one  must  choose 
between  horses  without  reins  or  a  driver  without 
steeds.  It  is  a  question  of  controlling  the  mechan- 
ism of  the  age  by  strength  of  the  spirit.  In  its 
form  it  is  an  economic  question,  a  question  of 
chariots  and  harness ;  but  in  its  essence  it  is 
ethical,  a  question  of  personal  capacity  and  ideal- 
ism. Circumstances  wait  on  character.  Machinery 
is  the  instrument  of  power.  Social  progress  has 
for  its  charioteer  the  conscience  of  the  age. 
Better  methods  may  simplify  the  Social  Ques- 
tion, it  can  be  solved  by  nothing  less  than  better 
men.  "We  are  idealists,"  wrote  Schiller  to  von 
Humboldt,    "and  should  be  ashamed  to   have   it 

1  "  Phsedrus,"  tr.  Jowett,  1871,  I,  580  ff. 


l6      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

said  of  us  that  we  did  not  form  things,  but  that 
things  formed  us."  *  The  whole  creation  of 
modern  society,  as  the  Apostle  Paul  said  of  the 
world  of  nature,  groaneth  and  travaileth  in  pain, 
waiting  for  the  revealing  of  the  sons  of  God. 

At  this  point,  where  the  Social  Question  opens 
into  the  question  of  character,  we  meet,  once  more, 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ.  Concerning  the 
machinery  of  the  world  he  has  little  instruction  to 
give.  His  teaching  is  misapplied  when  utilized  as 
a  manual  of  social  mechanics.  Even  his  own  social 
ideal  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  is  not  for  him,  in 
form  or  method,  to  define.  "  Of  that  day  and 
hour  knoweth  no  man,  no,  not  the  angels  of  heaven, 
but  my  Father  only."  2  When,  however,  we  inquire 
for  the  instrument  of  social  redemption,  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus  becomes  explicit  and  undisguised. 
His  care  is  for  the  person.  He  has  what  has  been 
called  a  passion  for  personality.  He  is  concerned, 
not  with  devising  ways  of  social  redemption,  but 
with  creating  people  applicable  to  social  redemp- 
tion. The  Kingdom  is  the  end  of  his  desire,  but 
the  person  is  a  means  to  that  end.  First  character, 
then  usefulness ;  first  persons  fit  for  the  Kingdom, 
then  the  better  world, —  that  is  the  method  of  Jesus. 
The  field  of  his  purpose,  according  to  his  parable, 
is  the  world ;  but  the  good  seed  which  is  to  possess 
and  fertilize  that  world,  are  the  children  of  the 
Kingdom.     These  are  they  who  shall  take  com- 

1  Sime,  "  Schiller,"  1882,  p.  212. 

2  Matt.  xxiv.  36;   Mark  xiii.  32. 


THE    MODERN    WORLD  I J 

mand  of  circumstances  and,  like  strong,  produc- 
tive seed,  crowd  down  the  tares  by  their  superior 
vitality. 

The  teaching  of  Jesus,  therefore,  even  when  its 
form  is  social,  is  fundamentally  personal.  Out 
from  behind  the  Social  Question  emerges  the  ante- 
cedent problem  of  the  Christian  character.  It  is 
for  others  to  plough  and  harrow  the  field  of  the 
world,  to  arrange  its  schemes  of  work  and  wages, 
of  politics  and  reform ;  the  mission  of  Jesus  is  to 
create  a  type  of  character  which  shall  be  sown  like 
good  seed  in  the  waiting  field  and  possess  it  as 
children  of  the  Kingdom.  The  more  commanding 
the  Social  Question  grows,  the  more  essential  be- 
comes this  demand  for  people  fit  to  meet  that 
question.  The  more  intricate  is  the  machinery 
of  the  world,  the  more  competent  must  be  its 
engineers.  At  every  point  the  Social  Question 
drives  one  back  to  the  antecedent  question  of 
character;  from  the  acquisition  of  goods  to  the 
need  of  goodness ;  from  the  problem  of  cheapen- 
ing the  product  of  labor  to  the  problem  of  raising 
the  standard  of  men ;  from  things  to  life ;  from 
the  thought  of  the  world  as  a  factory  to  the 
thought  of  the  world  as  a  field,  where  the  good 
seed  are  the  children  of  the  Kingdom.  The  prob- 
lem of  other  centuries  was  that  of  saving  people 
from  the  world ;  the  problem  of  the  present  century 
is  that  of  making  people  fit  to  save  the  world.1 

1  E.  Grimm,   "  Die  Ethik  Jesu,"  1903,  ss.  1,  2,  3:  "Out  of  the 
Social  Question  rises  more  and  more  distinctly  a  new  and  ethical 
c 


1 8      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

If,  then,  the  study  of  the  Social  Question  opens 
as  by  an  inner  door  into  the  interior  problem 
of  the  Christian  character,  it  becomes  of  peculiar 
interest  to  follow  the  teaching  of  Jesus  as  it  thus 
enters  the  region  of  personal  morality.  What  are 
the  traits  which  he  is  most  concerned  to  inculcate  r 
By  what  kind  of  persons  is  the  service  of  the  world 
to  be  effectively  undertaken  ?  What  is  the  way  of 
growth,  and  what  are  the  consequences  of  the 
Christian  character?  Is  the  character  trained  in 
the  way  of  Jesus  Christ  fit  to  meet  the  demands  of 
the  present  age  ? 

Such  an  inquiry  would  seem  to  be  peculiarly 
free  from  difficulty.  It  appears  to  lie  on  the  very 
surface  of  history  and  to  require  no  venture  into 
the  depths  of  criticism  or  speculation.  Nothing 
would  seem  to  be  more  easily  determined  than  the 
kind  of  character  which  is  inspired  and  exemplified 
by  Jesus  Christ.  The  type  is  derived  directly 
from  the  Master's  principles  and  practice,  and 
these  are  reported  to  us  with  vivid  and  uncon- 
scious picturesqueness  in  the  plain  narratives  of 
the  first  three  Gospels.  Whatever  other  material 
offers  itself  for  such  an  inquiry  must  be  regarded 
as  of  subordinate  importance.     The  fourth  Gospel 


question  .  .  .  What  did  Jesus  desire  and  what  did  he  teach?'1 
George  Harris,  "Moral  Evolution,"  1896,  p.  244:  "Another 
characteristic  of  the  personal  ideal  of  Christian  ethics  remains  to 
be  noticed.  It  proceeds  from  the  individual  to  society  rather  than 
from  society  to  the  individual.  .  .  .  Christianity  deals  directly  with 
individuals  rather  than  with  institutions  and  tendencies." 


THE    MODERN    WORLD  19 

moves  in  a  region  of  exalted  speculation  which 
lies  for  the  most  part  quite  above  the  zone  of 
ethics,  and  the  reader,  as  he*  enters  it,  feels  a 
climatic  change  of  environment  and  intention. 
One  may  believe  that  he  hears  at  certain  points 
the  echo  of  an  independent  tradition,  but  this 
impression  is  trustworthy  only  as  it  is  confirmed 
by  the  Synoptic  record.1  The  Book  of  Acts  is 
primarily  concerned  with  the  expansion  of  the 
new  faith,  and  the  ethical  enthusiasms  and  sacri- 
fices of  the  little  company  of  believers  are  but 
incidents  along  the  way.  In  the  Epistles  of  Paul, 
it  is  true,  a  series  of  precepts  concerning  practical 
morality  appear  as  corollaries  of  his  speculative 
theology.  "  Therefore,"  he  says,  "  Wherefore," 
as  though  the  logic  of  his  dialectics  brought  him 
to  the  maxims  of   his   ethics ;    yet  here  also  the 

1  O.  Holtzmarm,  "  Leben  Jesu,"  1901,  ss.  34,  35  :  "  So  remote  an 
interpretation  and  working  over  of  tradition  should,  preferably,  not 
be  used  as  a  historical  source.  .  .  .  Yet  the  stream  of  Apostolic 
report  might  bring  with  it  much  which  the  Synoptists  had  not 
appreciated."  Stevens,  "Teaching  of  Jesus,"  1901,  p.  30:  "  Unlike 
the  Synoptic  tradition,  it  is  not  so  much  a  report  of  Jesus'  words 
and  deeds,  as  a  reproduction  of  the  meaning  which  his  person  and 
work  had  assumed  for  one  who  had  long  lived  in  the  mystic  con- 
templation ...  of  his  saving  power."  "  Encyclopaedia  Britannica," 
E.  A.  Abbott,  Art.,  Gospels :  "  Independently,  therefore,  of  its  intrin- 
sic value,  John  is  important  as  being  in  effect  the  earliest  commentary 
on  the  Synoptics."  VVarschauer,  "  The  Problem  of  the  Fourth  Gos- 
pel," 1903:  "The  Jesus  of  the  Synoptics  is  chiefly  a  great  teacher 
of  applied  religion,  the  Jesus  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  is  a  theological 
figure,  expanding  himself  under  a  variety  of  thought-allegories,  as 
bread,  the  door,  the  vine,  etc.,  all  of  which  are  without  parallel 
in  the  first  three  Gospels." 


20      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

ethical  teaching  is  subordinated  to  the  main  inten- 
tion of  clarifying  and  universalizing  the  revelation 
of  God  in  Christ.  When  we  turn  back  to  the  first 
three  Gospels  the  scene  changes.  The  atmosphere 
is  ethical.  Instead  of  the  mystic  heights  of  the 
fourth  Gospel,  or  the  obscure  depths  of  Pauline 
theology,  one  enters,  as  it  were,  a  region  of  homes 
and  fields,  of  natural  and  familiar  experiences,  and 
through  this  rolling  country,  with  its  varied  voca- 
tions, its  joys  and  pains,  its  happiness  and  tempta- 
tions, among  old  and  young,  rich  and  poor,  good 
and  bad,  walks  the  Teacher  of  the  higher  righteous- 
ness, showing  by  words  of  blessing  and  deeds  of 
mercy  the  way  that  men  should  go.  The  Synoptic 
Gospels  are  in  their  primary  intention  not  the  ex- 
position of  a  doctrine,  but  the  narrative  of  a  life. 
Whatever  further  disclosures  they  may  make  of 
the  relation  of  that  life  to  God  are  inferences  from 
the  narrative  rather  than  its  conscious  aim.  What- 
ever else  may  be  in  debate  concerning  the  life  of 
Jesus,  the  character  which  he  illustrates  and  com- 
mends seems  to  be  beyond  dispute.  Profounder 
problems  may  be  left  to  the  learned  to  explore, 
but  the  Beatitudes,  the  Parables,  the  grave,  com- 
pelling, gracious  Master,  bidding  men  of  imperfect 
faith  and  halting  decision  follow  him  —  these 
aspects  of  the  record  are  for  the  unlearned  to 
appreciate  and  obey.  It  seems  a  simple  task  to 
detach  from  other  questions  of  interpretation  the 
ethical  teaching  of  Jesus,  and  to  contemplate  the 
Master  as  he  unfolds  the  principles  of  the  Christian 


THE   MODERN   WORLD  21 

character.  The  first  three  Gospels  are  like  a  sea- 
beach,  where  one  may  note  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the 
tides  of  the  spirit  and  the  many  fragmentary 
reminiscences  which  are  thrown  up  by  the  uncon- 
scious waves;  but  where,  along  the  shore,  runs 
a  high-water  mark,  indicating  by  its  indisputable 
evidence  how  far  into  the  continent  of  truth  the 
flood-tide  has  at  least  once  made  its  way.1 

This  plain  inquiry  into  the  ethics  of  the  Gospels 
is,  however,  met  by  unexpected  obstacles.  The 
approach  to  the  message  of  Jesus  by  way  of  his 
ethical  teaching  is  not,  as  might  be  anticipated, 
the  path  habitually  followed  by  the  most  competent 
guides;  but  is,  on  the  contrary,  a  comparatively 
untravelled  way.  Instead  of  finding  one's  self  on 
the  main  road  of  Biblical  study,  one  is  surprised 


1  So,  W.  Knight,  "The  Christian  Ethic,"  1893,  p.  ix:  "There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  teaching  of  the  Founder  of  Christianity 
was  primarily  moral  teaching."  Bruce,  "  With  Open  Face,"  1896, 
p.  184:  "Note  the  first  general  thesis:  ethics  before  religion. 
This  was  fundamentally  in  our  Lord's  teaching  enforced  with  much 
emphasis  and  due  reiteration."  A.  Thoma,  "  Gesch.  der  christl. 
Sittenlehre,"  1879,  ss.  134,  136:  "The  teaching  of  Jesus  is  specifi- 
cally ethics,  not  religion,  ...  yet  the  ethics  of  Jesus  are  penetrated 
by  his  religion."  Wernle,  "Die  Anfange  unserer  Religion,"  1901, 
s.  58 :  "  In  the  first  three  Gospels  we  hear  nothing  of  great  words 
like  redemption,  atonement,  justification,  regeneration;  yet  every 
reader  realizes  that  the  companions  of  Jesus  were  lifted  into  a  life 
of  supreme,  spiritual  joy."  Fairbairn,  "  Philosophy  of  the  Christian 
Religion,"  1902,  p.  565 :  "  Would  it  not  have  been  to  the  infinite 
advantage  of  the  religion  if  these  Councils  had  concerned  them- 
selves as  much  with  the  ethics  as  with  the  metaphysics  of  the  person 
of  Christ?" 


22      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

to  observe  that  he  has  left  the  path  pursued  by 
the  great  majority  of  New  Testament  scholars, 
and  must  proceed  in  large  part  alone.  This 
meagre  travel  along  the  road  of  ethics  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  explain.  It  is  a  striking  evidence  of  the 
overmastering  interest  which  through  all  the  cen- 
turies of  Christian  thought  has  been  felt  in  the 
theology  of  the  New  Testament.  Practical  moral- 
ity, the  conduct  of  life,  the  traits  of  the  Christian 
character,  have  seemed  too  elementary  and  ob- 
vious subjects  of  inquiry  to  command  the  atten- 
tion of  scholars.  What  they  have  sought  is  a 
background  for  morality,  a  metaphysics  of  reli- 
gion, the  satisfaction  of  the  thirst  of  the  mind  for 
the  living  God.  To  define  the  place  of  Jesus  in 
God's  plan  for  humanity,  and  the  place  of  human- 
ity in  God's  plan  for  eternity,  has  been  the  absorb- 
ing passion  of  the  theological  habit  of  mind.  From 
this  habit  of  mind  has  issued  what  may  be  called  a 
dramatic  rather  than  an  ethical  conception  of  the 
Christian  religion.  A  vast  world-drama  appears 
to  unfold  its  plan,  from  the  first  act  of  creation  to 
the  climax  of  redemption,  and  when  the  spectator 
of  this  scheme  of  universal  love  is  called  to  con- 
sider the  details  of  personal  character,  it  may  well 
seem  a  trifling,  if  not  a  sacrilegious  interruption. 
It  is  that  sense  of  deprivation  and  regret  which 
the  disciples  felt  when  they  were  bidden  to  go 
down  from  the  mount  of  transfiguration;  a  de- 
scent to  the  valley  of  commonplace,  when  one  has 
seen  the  vision  on  the  heights.     The  theology  of 


THE   MODERN   WORLD  23 

the  New  Testament  invites  us  to  the  large  horizon 
of  God ;  the  ethics  of  the  New  Testament  calls  us 
down  to  the  common  people  and  the  demoniac 
boy. 

Even  the  science  of  Christian  ethics,  which 
by  its  very  name  would  appear  to  be  a  study  of 
the  Christian  character,  has  been  generally  re- 
garded, not  as  a  plain,  inductive  inquiry  concern- 
ing the  ethics  of  Jesus  Christ,  but  as  a  chapter  in 
the  history  of  dogma.  Christian  ethics,  it  has 
been  remarked,  was  treated  by  the  earlier  theology 
as  the  step-child  of  Christian  dogma ;  a  Cinderella 
whom  the  proud  sisters,  theology  and  philosophy, 
might  patronize  or  neglect.1  It  would  be  more 
just  to  say  that  Christian  ethics  has  itself  under- 
taken the  part  of  a  proud  sister  and  has  sought 
the  gay  company  of  the  speculative  theologians, 
instead  of  remaining  contentedly  at  the  fireside  of 
fact.  Nothing  could  be  more  remote  from  the 
form  of  teaching  which  prevails  in  the  first  three 
Gospels  than  the  erudite  discussions  of  many  a 

1  A.  Thoma,  "Geschichte  der  christl.  Sittenlehre,"  1879,  s.  I: 
"  Die  christliche  Sittenlehre  wurde  von  den  alten  Theologen 
in  Verbindung  mit  der  Glaubenslehre  als  deren  Gefolge  be- 
handelt;  und  begreiflicherweise  sehr  stiefmutterlich;  aber  dies 
nachgeborene  und  vernachlassigte  Stiefkind,  das  Aschenbrodel  der 
christlichen  Lehrwissenschaft,  wurde  nachgerade  auch  miindig,  und 
erweist  sich  wohl  als  das  dankbarste  fur  eine  aufmerksame  Pflege. 
Ja,  es  ware  kein  Schade  wenn  es  die  Stelle  der  vorgezogenen 
Schwester  einnahme  und  das  Lieblingskind  der  Mutter  Theologie 
wurde,  ist  es  doch  das  echteste  Geisteskind  des  Christentums,  wie 
dessen  Urgeschichte  nachweist." 


24      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

treatise  on  Christian  ethics.  Instead  of  concrete 
problems  of  experience,  we  are  confronted  by 
elaborate  discussions  of  the  being  of  God,  the 
nature  of  evil,  and  the  doctrine  of  the  Highest 
Good,  which  approach  the  facts  of  conduct  from 
so  distant  a  point,  and  with  such  leisureliness  of 
movement,  that  the  modern  world  cannot  wait  for 
their  tardy  arrival.  A  revival  of  simplicity,  a 
discarding  of  the  fine  attire  of  theology,  and  a 
return  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  seem  essential 
if  Christian  ethics  is  to  have  a  hearing  from  the 
present  age.  Meantime,  the  monumental  works 
which  were  the  pride  of  one  generation  are  for  the 
most  part  consigned  by  the  following  generation 
to  those  upper  shelves  where,  like  the  early  Chris- 
tians in  the  catacombs,  repose  the  honored  remains 
of  our  dead  literature.1 

1  It  is  instructive  to  observe  the  various  relations  which  have 
been  proposed  between  Christian  ethics  and  Christian  theology. 
I.  Ethics  a  corollary  of  dogmatics.  Dorner,  "  System  of  Christian 
Ethics,"  tr.  Mead,  1887,  begins  with  Creation.  Division  I:  "The 
order  of  the  world  as  fixed  by  God  at  creation,  antecedent  to  the 
moral  process."  So,  p.  5  :  "  Ethics  cannot  be  called  the  foundation 
of  dogmatics,  but  stands  to  dogmatics  in  a  relation  of  dependence." 
So,  Martensen,  "Christian  Ethics,"  tr.  Spence,  1873,  of  which  Gass 
(Geschichte  d.  Ch.  Ethik,  1887,  III,  304)  remarks:  "Martensen's 
method  is  like  a  three-arched  hall  approached  through  a  row  of 
columns."  ("  Martensen  konnte  daher  niclit  ohne  Propylaen  in  den 
dreifach  gewolbten  Saal  seiner  Wissenschaft  eintreten.")  Section  I : 
"  Postulates  of  Christian  Ethics,  theological,  anthropological,  cos- 
mopological,  eschatological,"  pp.  61-140:  "Dogmatics  is  the  first- 
born and  thus  enjoys  the  higher  dignity."  So,  Wuttke,  "  Christian 
Ethics,"  tr.  Lacroix,  1873,  p.  21.:  "  Ethics  forms  a  part  of  system- 
atic theology,  .  .  .  and  has  dogmatics  as  its  immediate  presupposi- 


THE    MODERN   WORLD  25 

It  should  not  be  hastily  concluded  that  this 
absorbing  interest  in  the  theology  of  Christianity 

tion."   Newman  Smyth,  "  Christian  Ethics,"  1892,  p.  13 :  "  Christian 
ethics  naturally  follows  Christian  theology." 

2.  A  second  alternative  is  proposed  by  approaching  Christian 
ethics,  not  through  dogmatic  theology,  but  through  ethical  phi- 
losophy. Hermann  Weiss,  "  Einleitung  in  die  christl.  Ethik," 
1889,  §  6,  I,  "Of  ideas  in  general";  II,  "Of  the  idea  of  good- 
ness," §  7,  I,  "Goodness  and  the  good  in  general";  II,  "The 
relation  of  goodness  to  the  world  of  man  and  nature."  (Earlier 
literature  of  various  tendencies  is  indicated,  s.  40,  note.) 

3.  A  third  adjustment  is  made  by  fusing  ethics  with  theology, 
in  a  "  System  of  Christian  Doctrine,"  as  in  Rothe,  "  Theologische 
Ethik,"  1845,  §  5 :  "It  will  always  be  an  impracticable  venture 
to  discriminate  theological  ethics  from  theology." 

4.  All  these  academic  undertakings  overlook  the  modest  path 
which  begins  in  an  inductive  inquiry  concerning  the  moral  type  com- 
mended and  illustrated  in  the  New  Testament.  Such  an  examina- 
tion presupposes  no  preliminary  speculation  concerning  the  nature 
of  God,  or  the  Highest  Good,  but  begins  with  the  obvious  facts  of 
duty-doing,  and  proceeds  to  the  implications  which  these  facts  sug- 
gest. A  foreshadowing  of  such  a  method  is  made  in  the  "  Moral 
Proof"  of  Kant  ("Critique  of  Practical  Reason,"  tr.  Abbott,  1883, 
p.  360 :  "  We  may  divide  all  religions  into  two  classes  —  favour-seek- 
ing religion  (mere  worship),  and  moral  religion,  that  is,  the  reli- 
gion of  a  good  life  ") ;  in  the  "  Theology  of  experience  "  of  Schleier- 
macher,  "  Die  Christliche  Sitte,"  1843,  ss.  12,  13:  "To  expound  the 
idea  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  to  expound  the  law  of  Christian  con- 
duct, and  this  is  nothing  else  than  Christian  ethics."  s.  17 :  "If  we  as- 
sume that  the  original  characteristic  of  Christianity  is  a  way  of  life,  we 
must  present  the  doctrine  of  Christianity  as  a  unit,  of  which  ethics 
is  the  foundation  and  dogma  is  the  corollary  " ;  and  again  in  Ritschl's 
•  Theology  without  metaphysics"  ("  Lehre  der  Rechtfertigung  und 
Versohnung,"  1888,  III,  415)  :  "A  scientific  understanding  of  the 
relations  of  Jesus  as  expressed  in  his  religious  conception  appears 
attainable  only  by  assuming  that  we  have  understood  his  historical 
and  human  manifestations  ;  that  is,  have  perceived  its  ethical  con* 


26      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

has  been  misdirected  or  superfluous.     On  the  con- 
trary, it  may  be  more  justly  described  as  inevitable. 

sistency  and  law."  So  also,  Kaftan, "  Wahrheit  der  christl.  Religion," 
1888,  s.  383  :  "  The  question  is  whether  the  will  or  the  intellect  natu- 
rally takes  the  lead  (von  Haus  aus  das  Regiment  fuhrt).  It  is  no 
difficult  question.  The  primacy  of  the  will  is  so  obvious  that  it  can 
hardly  be  proved."  So,  Pfleiderer,  "  Moral  und  Religion,"  1872, 
s.  214 :  "  Ethics,  in  its  manifestations  in  a  moral  world,  is  independent 
of  religion  and  antecedent  to  the  religious  expressions  of  the 
Church."  Baur,  "  Christenthum  der  ersten  drei  Jahrhunderte," 
i860,  s.  35  :  "This  ethical  note  which  is  heard  in  the  simple  phrases 
of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  the  purest  and  most  unmistakable 
element  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  and  the  essential  core  of  Chris- 
tendom." Ehrhardt,  "Der  Grundcharakter  der  Ethik  Jesu,"  1895, 
s.  106:  "The  essence  of  the  character  of  Jesus  is  not  in  his  vision 
of  the  Eternal,  but  the  loving  sacrifice  of  his  devotion  to  the  hum- 
blest human  needs." 

The  systematic  acceptance  of  this  inductive  procedure  is,  how- 
ever, a  modern  incident  in  the  history  of  Christian  ethics.  Thus 
Jacoby  ("  Neutestamentliche  Ethik,"  1899)  remarks  (s.  VI),  that 
but  one  book,  that  of  Thoma  (cited  above),  is  known  to  him  as 
anticipating  his  treatment.  "The  present  work  may  claim  to  be 
the  first  to  present  the  ethics  of  the  New  Testament  in  scientific 
form."  So,  A.  Thoma,  s.  3 :  "A  specific  treatment  of  the  history  of 
Christian  morality  in  its  original  expression  does  not,  to  my  knowl- 
edge, exist."  Of  special  significance  is  the  address  at  the  14th 
Evang.-soz.  Kong.,  1903,  W.  Herrmann,  "  Die  sittlichen  Gedanken 
Jesu  in  ihrem  Verhaltnis  zu  der  sittlich-sozialen  Lebensbewegung 
der  Gegenwart"  (reprinted  and  expanded  in  "Die  sittlichen 
Weisungen  Jesu,"  1904),  s.  12:  "We  can  continue  to  be  Chris- 
tians only  by  recognizing  in  our  contemporary  and  inevitable  con- 
dition of  morals  and  manners  the  fulfilment  of  the  purpose  of 
Jesus  Christ."  s.  29 :  "  The  ethical  ideas  of  Jesus  are  incontestably 
the  essential  element  of  the  spiritual  experiences  of  the  modern 
world."  The  discussion  was  continued  in  1904  (i5ter  Evang.-soz. 
Kong.,  1904)  byTroeltsch,  "  Die  christl.  Ethik  und  die  heutige  Ge- 
sellschaft"  (supplementing,  as  Rade  points  out  (s.  51),  the  Paper 


THE    MODERN   WORLD  2J 

Nothing,  after  all,  is  of  such  permanent  worth  as  a 
rational  interpretation  of  the  universe.     The  mind 

of  Herrmann).  To  the  same  effect,  E.  Grimm,  "Die  Ethik  Jesu," 
1903,  s.  4 :  "  There  was  a  time  when  ethics  was  almost  devoured 
by  dogmatics.  .  .  .  All  this  has  radically  changed.  .  .  .  The 
more  the  dogmatic  element  recedes  in  interest  the  more  the  ethi- 
cal element  is  emphasized."  Gallwitz,  "  Das  Problem  der  Ethik," 
1891,  s.  272,  "The  moral  significance  and  uniqueness  of  the  per- 
son of  Christ  is  discerned  in  his  illuminating  the  dark  problems  of 
morality  which  confront  the  present  and  the  future,  and  which 
find  their  solution  only  in  the  light  proceeding  from  his  person." 
Wellhausen,  "Israel,  und  Jud.  Gesch.,"  5te  Ausg.,  1904,  s.  386: 
"  Christianity  has  a  wholly  different  root  from  Judaism.  The  con- 
trast of  Jew  and  Gentile  withers  and  the  moral  contrast  takes  its 
place.  .  .  .  Good  and  evil  are  two  distinct  worlds.  .  .  .  Moral 
responsibility  gets  the  chief  emphasis."  See  also,  O.  Holtzmann, 
"  Leben  Jesu,"  1901,  Kap.  IX,  X;  Bonhoff,  "  Christentum  und  sittl.- 
soz.  Lebensfragen,"  1900,  Kap.  IV,  "  Die  Religion  Jesu  Christi  als 
Kraftquelle  der  Sittlichkeit  ";  Feddersen,  "  Jesus  und  die  sozialen 
Dinge,"  1902  (a  protest  against  excessive  emphasis  on  the  social 
teaching,  ss.  107  ff.) ;  Otto,  "  Leben  und  Wirken  Jesu,"  1902,  ss.  47  ff. 
Of  literature  to  the  same  purpose  in  English  may  be  mentioned : 
"  Ecce  Homo,"  1866,  Ch.  IX,  "  Reflections  on  the  Nature  of  Christ's 
Society,"  p.  100 :  "  The  object  of  the  Divine  Society  is  that  God's  will 
may  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  done  in  heaven.  In  the  language  of  our 
own  day,  its  object  was  the  improvement  of  morality."  Phillips 
Brooks,  "The  Influence  of  Jesus,"  1879,  Lect.  I,  "The  Influence  of 
Jesus  on  the  Moral  Life  of  Man,"  p.  14:  "To  tell  men  that  they 
were,  and  to  make  them  actually  be,  the  sons  of  God,  — that  was 
the  purpose  of  the  coming  of  Jesus,  and  the  shaping  power  of  His 
life."  Martineau,  "A  Study  of  Religion,"  1888,  I,  16  ff.:  "Why 
Ethics  before  Religion."  See  also  his  "  Faith  and  Self-Surrender," 
1897.  W.  S.  Bruce,  "  The  Formation  of  Christian  Character,"  1902, 
p.  ix :  "  The  chief  contribution  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  Social  Prob- 
lem is  the  production  of  spiritual  personality.  In  the  Christian 
Character  He  provides  that  element  of  social  progress  of  which  the 
world  stands  most  in  need."     Harris,  "Moral  Evolution,"    1896, 


28      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

of  man  is  unsatisfied  until  it  contemplates  the 
thought  of  God.  "  Thou  hast  formed  us  for  Thy- 
self," said  Augustine,  "  and  our  hearts  are  restless 
till  they  find  rest  in  Thee."1  The  criticism  which 
the  present  age  has  to  make  on  the  ages  of 
theology  is  not  that  they  have  gone  too  far,  but 
that  they  have  gone  too  fast.     They  have  scaled 

p.  392 :  "  In  the  order  of  time  Christian  doctrine  followed  Christian 
ethics.  Jesus  was  a  moral  teacher."  G.  B.  Stevens,  "  The  Teach- 
ing of  Jesus,"  1901,  Ch.  XI,  p.  130:  "The  religion  which  Jesus 
taught  .  .  .  was  moral  to  the  core,  that  is,  was  wholly  concerned 
with  righteousness  of  life."  Harnack,  "What  is  Christianity?" 
tr.  Saunders,  1901,  pp.  153  ff. :  "  The  Gospel  is  no  theoretical  system 
of  doctrine  or  philosophy  of  the  universe.  ...  It  is  a  glad  mes- 
sage assuring  us  of  life  eternal.  ...  By  treating  of  life  eternal  it 
teaches  us  how  to  lead  our  lives  aright.  .  .  .  How  great  a  depar- 
ture from  what  he  thought  and  enjoined  is  involved  in  putting  a 
Christological  creed  in  the  forefront  of  the  Gospel.  .  .  .  He 
takes  the  publican  in  the  temple,  the  widow  and  her  mite,  the  lost 
son,  as  his  examples;  none  of  them  know  anything  about  'Chris- 
tology.'  "  So  also,  F.  P.  Cobbe,  "  Studies  New  and  Old,"  1865,  p.  1 : 
"Christian  Ethics  and  the  Ethics  of  Christ";  George  Matheson, 
"Landmarks  of  New  Testament  Morality,"  1889;  G.  H.  Gilbert, 
"The  Revelation  of  Jesus,"  1899;  C.  A.  Briggs,  "The  Ethical  Teach- 
ing of  Jesus,"  1904,  Pref.,  p.  x:  "Jesus'  principle  of  voluntary 
love  is  the  great  transforming  principle  of  Christianity."  W.  deW. 
Hyde,  "Jesus'  Way,"  1902;  R.  F.  Horton,  "The  Teaching  of 
Jesus,"  1895,  Par*  J*  The  Synoptics;  Broadus,  "Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth," 1890,  Lect.  I,  "His  Personal  Character";  Lect.  II,  "His 
Ethical  Teachings";  A.  L.  Bruce,  "With  Open  Face,"  1896, 
Ch.  X,  "The  Moral  Ideal"  ;  J.  Drummond,  "Via,  Veritas,  Vita," 
Hibbert  Lectures,  1894;  Lect.  VI,  VII,  "Ethics";  VIIL 
"The  Motive  Power  of  Christianity";  G.  Jackson,  "The  Teach- 
ing of  Jesus,"  1903,  IX  ;  "  Concerning  Righteousness." 

1  "  Confessions,"  I,  I :  "  Fecisti  nos  ad  te  et  inquietum  est  cor 
nostrum,  donee  requiescat  in  te." 


THE  MODERN    WORLD  20, 

the  heights  of  heaven  without"  providing  them- 
selves with  the  necessities  of  earth.  "Give  me 
the  luxuries  of  existence,"  said  a  distinguished 
historian,  when  describing  his  personal  tastes,  "  and 
I  can  dispense  with  the  necessities."  That  is  what 
one  is  tempted  to  say  of  a  theology  which  substitutes 
a  dramatic  redemption  for  an  ethical  revival.  A 
theology  which  does  not  begin  by  establishing  the 
foundations  of  morals  may  be  subtle  and  lofty  as  the 
clouds,  but  to  the  modern  mind  appears,  like 
the  clouds,  remote  and  intangible.  Whatever  else 
the  City  of  God  may  have,  it  must  have  a  founda- 
tion. Whatever  else  theology  may  be,  it  must  be 
first  of  all  a  moral  theology.  Whatever  other  attri- 
butes may  be  ascribed  to  God,  the  first  must  be  his 
goodness.  The  theologians  are  obeying  the  call  of 
the  highest  when  they  press  upward  to  the  heights 
of  the  knowledge  of  God,  but  it  is  by  no  means 
certain  that  they  have  chosen  the  only  practicable 
way.  It  is  not  always  the  straightest  line,  said 
Lessing,  which  is  the  shortest.1  The  steep  ascent 
of  theological  reasoning  seems  reserved  for  the 
few,  while  for  the  many  the  modest  footpath 
of  ethics  is  less  arduous  and  obstructed.  Vistas 
into  reality  may  open  along  the  way  of  simple 
duty-doing,  which  are  hid  from  the  highway  of 
theological  learning;  and  though  one  may  not 
ascend  by  this  path  to  the  summit  of  vision,  he 
may  see  clearly  the  lower  landscape  instead  of 
being  lost  in  the  fog. 

1  "  Education  of  the  Human  Race,"  §  91 :    "  Es  ist  nicht  wahr 
dass  die  kurzeste  Linie  immer  die  grade  ist." 


30      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

In  a  lecture  of  Cardinal  Newman's,  concern- 
ing the  nature  of  Christian  faith,  he  describes, 
with  astonishing  candor,  the  effect  of  a  theology 
which  begins  in  something  else  than  ethics.1 
"  A  feeble  old  woman,"  he  says,  "  first  genu- 
flects before  the  Blessed  Sacrament  and  then 
steals  her  neighbor's  handkerchief.  She  kneels 
because  she  believes,  she  steals  because  she  does 
not  love.  .  .  .  How  merciful  a  Providence  it  has 
been  that  faith  and  love  are  separable,  as  the 
Catholic  creed  teaches."  It  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  this  divorce  of  faith  from  love,  of  religion  from 
ethics,  of  prayer  from  pocket-picking,  appears  to 
the  modern  mind  unthinkable.  It  seems  to  propose 
a  religion  with  an  end  but  without  a  beginning, 
with  a  top  but  with  no  bottom,  in  the  air  but  not 
on  the  ground,  a  separation  not  alone  of  faith  from 
works,  but  of  religion  from  common  sense,  of  the 
character  of  God  from  the  character  of  man ;  and 
one  turns  with  a  sigh  of  relief  from  a  system  of 
theology  which  is  consistent  with  larceny,  to  a 
code  of  ethics  which  begins  with  honesty. 

1  "  Lectures  on  Certain  Difficulties  felt  by  Anglicans  on  sub- 
mitting to  the  Catholic  Faith,"  1857,  pp.  225-229.  Compare  Lecky, 
"History  of  European  Morals,"  1869,  I,  359:  "That  the  greatest 
religious  change  in  the  history  of  mankind  should  have  taken  place 
under  the  eyes  of  a  brilliant  galaxy  of  philosophers  and  historians 
.  .  .  that,  during  the  space  of  three  centuries,  they  should  have 
treated  as  simply  contemptible  an  agency  which  all  men  must  now 
admit  to  have  been  .  .  .  the  most  powerful  moral  lever  that  has 
ever  been  applied  to  the  affairs  of  man,  are  facts  well  worthy  of 
meditation.  .  .  .  The  explanation  is  to  be  found  in  that  broad 
separation  between  the  spheres  of  morals  and  of  positive  religion." 


THE    MODERN    WORLD  3 1 

Such  considerations  restore  in  ^some  degree  the 
self-respect  of  those  who  turn  from  the  steep  way 
of  theology  and  enter  the  Gospels  by  the  wicket- 
gate  of  ethics.  It  is  a  modest  way  of  approach, 
unfrequented  by  the  learned,  but  the  gate  swings 
easily  open  and  the  path  is  plain.  One  may  per- 
haps not  hear  the  highest  message  of  the  Gospel, 
but  he  is  not  likely  to  miss  its  most  obvious  lessons. 
His  contemplation  of  a  cosmic  drama  will  not  hide 
from  him  the  elementary  demands  of  duty.  His 
theology,  such  as  it  is,  will  at  least  be  inconsistent 
with  moral  delinquency;  his  God  will  at  least 
be  good;  his  creed  will  not  encourage  the  suspi- 
cion that  loose  business  ethics  are  compatible  with 
firm  Christian  discipleship.  It  must  be  frankly 
admitted  that  theology  is  viewed  by  many  modern 
minds  with  scepticism,  if  not  with  complete  in- 
difference. Theological  speculation  seems  to  many 
persons  to  deal  with  much  that  lies  quite  beyond 
the  horizon  of  knowledge,  and  with  little  that 
concerns  the  ordinary  life  of  man.  Even  if  such 
scepticism  be  unjustified,  the  lesson  for  theology 
is  plain.  It  must  establish  connection  with  the 
world  of  conduct ;  it  must  reconsider  the  ethical 
basis  of  theology;  it  must  restate  the  doctrine 
of  the  Christian  character.  If  there  is  to  be  a 
restoration  of  confidence  in  theology,  it  must  be 
secured,  not  by  annexing  new  fields  of  speculation, 
but  by  exploring  more  thoroughly  the  familiar  field 
of  morality.  If  theology  is  to  remain  the  queen 
of  the  sciences,  righteousness  and  judgment  must 
be  the  foundations  of  her  throne. 


32      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

For  the  moment,  therefore,  it  is  of  no  great  im- 
portance to  consider  whether  ethics  or  metaphysics 
offers  the  most  direct  road  to  truth.  It  is  only- 
necessary  to  observe  that  one  of  these  roads  lies 
straight  before  our  feet,  and  that  to  reach  the  other 
we  must  transfer  ourselves  to  the  mind  of  another 
age.  To  pass  from  the  temper  of  the  present  time 
to  the  method  of  dogmatic  theology  is  to  go  a  long 
way  round.  The  ideals  of  the  modern  world  ex- 
press themselves  in  the  desire  for  practical  effec- 
tiveness ;  the  intellectual  speculations  of  other  ages 
are  supplanted  by  the  passion  for  usefulness,  leader- 
ship, and  service.  Does  such  a  transfer  of  interest 
dry  up  the  sources  of  idealism  ?  On  the  contrary, 
it  simply  creates  a  new  channel  for  idealism,  and 
directs  its  refreshing  stream  to  social  instead  of  to 
speculative  ends.  Does  it,  on  the  other  hand, 
detach  the  modern  mind  from  the  influence  of 
Jesus?  On  the  contrary,  it  calls  attention  to  an 
aspect  of  that  influence  which  theology  has  often 
overlooked.  Never  was  there  a  time  when  plain 
people  were  less  concerned  with  the  metaphysics 
or  ecclesiasticism  of  Christianity.  The  construc- 
tions of  systems  and  the  contentions  of  creeds, 
which  once  appeared  the  central  themes  of  human 
interest,  are  now  regarded  by  millions  of  busy  men 
and  women  as  mere  echoes  of  ancient  controver- 
sies, if  not  mere  mockeries  of  the  problems  of  the 
present  age.  Even  the  convocations  of  the  Churches 
manifest  little  appetite  for  discussions  which  were 
once  the  bread  of  their  life  and  the  wine  of  their 


UNiVER 

or 

THE    MODERN   WORLD  33 

exhilaration,  and  one  of  the  leaders  of  a  great  Chris- 
tian communion  has  been  led  of  late  to  say:  "  I  do 
not  know  what  conclusions  they  arrived  at,  nor  do 
I  think  that  it  is  of  any  particular  consequence 
that  they  arrived  at  any  conclusion.  The  most 
desirable  thing  was  that  they  should  come  to  an 
end."  » 

Under  these  very  conditions  of  theological  sa- 
tiety, however,  the  mind  of  the  age  returns  with 
fresh  interest  to  the  contemplation  of  the  char- 
acter of  Jesus  Christ.  "  Back  to  Jesus ;  "  "  In 
his  Name;"  "What  would  Jesus  do?"  "Jesus' 
Way"  —  phrases  like  these,  caught  up  by  multi- 
tudes of  unsophisticated  readers,  indicate  the  force 
and  scope  of  the  modern  imitation  of  Christ. 
To  follow  Jesus  even  though  one  does  not  fully 
understand  him;  to  do  the  will  even  if  one  has 
not  learned  the  doctrine;  to  perceive  through 
much  darkness  that  the  Life  is  the  light  of  men  ; 
—  these  are  the  marks  of  the  new  obedience. 
The  character  of  Jesus  Christ  speaks  with  its 
own  convincing  authority  to  the  mind  of  the 
present  age. 

A  striking  example  of  this  new  discipleship  may 
be  observed  in  the  prevailing  temper  of  the 
modern  labor-movement.  To  the  great  mass  of 
hand-workers  nothing  could  seem  more  unreal  or 
uninteresting  than  the  ordinary  methods  and  con- 
cerns of  the  Christian  Church.     Priests  and  par- 

1  Henry  van  Dyke,"  Straight  Sermons,"  1893,  X,  "The  Horizon," 
p.  229. 

D 


34      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

sons,  formal  worship  and  conflicting  creeds,  appear 
to  deal  with  matters  that  have  no  vital  relation 
with  the  work  of  the  world.  On  the  day  when 
Christians  meet  for  prayer,  trade-unionists  and 
socialists  meet  to  consider  what  they  believe  the 
not  less  sacred  themes  of  human  fraternity  and 
industrial  peace ;  and  by  great  numbers  of  hand- 
workers the  Christian  Church  is  frankly  regarded 
as  a  mere  club  of  the  prosperous,  if  not  a  mere 
symbol  of  the  capitalistic  system.  Yet  hostile  or 
contemptuous  as  may  be  their  attitude  toward  in- 
stitutional Christianity,  at  one  point  their  sense  of 
alienation  is  supplanted  by  sympathy.  It  is  when 
they  recall  the  character  of  Jesus  Christ.  Nothing, 
indeed,  is  left  of  a  supernatural  halo  round  his  per- 
son. "  He  would  have  accomplished  more,"  it  is 
urged,  "if  he  had  worked  for  economics  and 
science  rather  than  religion." 1  He  was  a  plain 
working-man,  a  friend  of  the  poor,  a  social  reformer, 
"  who  if  he  were  now  living  would  give  him- 
self to  the  labor-movement."  "  The  ancient  forms 
and  symbols  in  which  Christian  faith  has  been 
hitherto  expressed  are,"  says  an  observant  inquirer 
among  German  working-people,  "for  the  great 
majority  of  hand-workers  irretrievably  shattered. 
.  .  .  One  thing  alone  is  left  to  them  all,  —  respect 
and  reverence  for  Jesus  Christ."  2    Imperfect  and 

1  Rade,  gte  Evang.-soz.  Kong.,  1898,  s.  104:  "Die  sittlichrel. 
Gedankenwelt  unsrer  Industriearbeiter." 

2  P.  Gohre, "  Drei  Monate  Fabrikarbeiter,"  1 891,  s.  190;  compare 
"Jesus  Christ  and  the  Social  Question,"  1900,   p.  71  ;  American 


THE    MODERN    WORLD  35 

superficial  as  this  judgment  of  Jesus  may  be,  it  at 
least  makes  a  point  of  contact  between  the  Chris- 
tian faith  and  the  modern  working-man.  The 
Church,  it  was  once  said,  hears  none  but  Christ. 
The  labor-movement,  it  may  now  be  said,  hears 
not  the  Church  of  Christ,  but  gladly  listens  to  the 
voice  which  says :  "  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that 
labor ; "  "I  will  give  unto  this  last  even  as  unto 
thee."  At  this  point  —  and  probably  at  this  point 
only  —  it  is  possible  to  bridge  the  chasm  which 
divides  the  ideals  of  Christianity  from  the  ideals  of 
the  hand-workers.  From  a  common  reverence  it 
may  be  possible  to  cross  to  a  common  understand- 
ing; and  the  times  are  waiting  for  the  great  teacher, 
the  Pontifex  Maximus  of  his  generation,  who  shall 
build  this  bridge  from  the  daily  concerns  of  the 
working  masses  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Nor  is  this  ethical  susceptibility  a  mark  of  the 
present  age  alone.  It  is  quite  as  conspicuously  a 
mark  of  the  age  of  Jesus  himself.  The  same  sense 
of  unreality  and  remoteness  then  affected  many 
minds  as  they  surveyed  the  formalism  of  Hebrew 
worship.  They  were  ready  for  an  ethical  revival ; 
they  looked  for  a  teacher  who  should  say,  "  Seek 

Journal  of  Sociology,  March,  1899,  pp.  621  ff.;  H.  F.  Perry,  "The 
Working-man's  Alienation  from  the  Church  "  (evidence  of  Ameri- 
can hand-workers,  collected),  p.  622:  "Working-men  understand 
that  Christianity  is  only  another  name  for  justice,  love,  and  truth, 
and  that  '  Churchianity '  is  only  another  name  for  wrong,  injustice, 
oppression,  misery,  and  want.  Then  they  take  the  two  apart  and 
cheer  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  and  hiss  the  Church  .  .  .  honoring 
the  one,  scouting  the  other." 


36      JESUS    CHRIST  AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

first  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteousness." 
Jesus  met  his  age  where  it  was.  He  did  not  begin 
with  a  philosophy  like  that  of  the  fourth  Gospel, 
or  a  theology  like  that  of  Paul,  but  with  the  per- 
sonal problems  of  fisherfolk  and  publicans,  of  the 
doubting  and  sinning,  the  good  and  bad.  His 
first  blessings  were  offered  to  the  humble,  the 
merciful,  the  peace-makers;  his  first  discriminations 
were  between  conformity,  externalism,  legalism, 
and  brotherhood,  chastity,  moderation,  sincerity, 
love.  His  first  rebukes  were  pronounced  against 
worldliness,  anxiety,  and  hypocrisy;  his  first  tests 
of  discipleship  were  those  of  practical  ethics.  "By 
their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them." 

In  short,  the  teaching  of  Jesus  was  primarily 
a  teaching  of  character.  Further  intimacy  with 
him  might  give  to  his  followers  deeper  insight  into 
his  purposes  and  hopes ;  but  the  way  to  this  com- 
prehension lay  through  the  path  of  personal  loyalty 
and  obedience.  Seeking  first  the  Kingdom  of  God 
and  His  righteousness,  other  things  would  be  added 
unto  them.  Character  was  the  gate  of  conviction. 
Purity  in  heart  would  have  as  its  consequence 
the  capacity  to  see  God.  Obedience,  as  Robert- 
son said,  was  to  be  the  organ  of  spiritual  knowl- 
edge. If  any  man  willeth  to  do  the  will,  says 
the  fourth  Gospel,  he  shall  know  the  doctrine.1 

1  Wernle,  " Die  Anfange  unserer  Religion,"  1901,8.47:  "The 
central  desire  of  Jesus  is  to  awaken  the  conscience  and  set  before 
it  the  thought  of  Eternity.  .  .  .  One  can  understand  Jesus  only 
when  one  recognizes  this  desire  in  him."     So  also,  s.  54:  "The 


THE   MODERN   WORLD  37 

The  ethical  teaching  of  Jesus  is,  therefore,  not  only 
the  way  which  leads  most  directly  from  the  mind 
of  the  present  age  to  the  interpretation  of  the 
Gospels,  but  it  is  also  the  way  by  which  the  men 
of  the  Gospels  actually  approached  their  Master. 
It  presents  the  sequence  of  experiences,  the  chro- 
nology of  conviction,  which — though  it  be  by  no 
means  universal  —  is  none  the  less  that  which  the 
first  three  Gospels,  as  a  rule,  present. 

If,  then,  it  be  the  truth  of  history  that  the  first 
disciples  were  led  on  from  moral  attachment  to 
spiritual  insight,  from  reverence  for  the  character 
of  Jesus  to  confession  of  the  faith  of  Jesus,  it  may 
be  reasonably  believed  that  the  same  path  of 
spiritual  development  may  be  followed  to  the  same 

demands  of  Jesus  are  so  thoroughly  simple  and  positive,  that  they 
may  be  completely  set  forth  without  involving  them  in  questions 
of  the  Law,  the  Pharisees,  or  Jewish  ethics."  So,  von  Dobschutz, 
"Die  ur-christlichen  Gemeinden,"  1902,  VI:  "It  is  an  ancient  and 
approved  method  of  apologetics,  to  begin  with  the  moral  proofs 
of  Christianity.  Ilpd^is  iirt^acris  dewplas,  says  Gregory  of  Nazian- 
zen;  and  a  preacher  of  the  Primitive  Church  teaches:  'Neither 
life  without  knowledge,  nor  safe  knowledge  without  true  life;'" 
Epist.  ad  Diogn.,  XII,  4.  Harnack,  "  What  is  Christianity  ?  "  tr. 
Saunders,  1901,  p.  76:  "To  represent  the  Gospel  as  an  ethical 
message  is  no  depreciation  of  its  value.  .  .  .  There  is  a  sphere  of 
ethical  thought  which  is  peculiarly  expressive  of  Jesus'  Gospel." 
R.  Otto,  "Leben  und  Wirken  Jesu,"  1902,  s.  52:  "The  first  work 
of  Jesus  is  to  set  free  the  moral  life."  George  Harris,  "Moral 
Evolution,"  1896,  p.  404:  "Theology  starts  now  with  the  historical 
human  person."  So,  Channing :  "  The  sense  of  duty  is  the  greatest 
gift  of  God  ;  the  idea  of  right  is  the  primary  and  highest  revelation 
of  God  to  the  human  mind ;  and  all  outward  revelations  are 
founded  on  and  addressed  to  it." 


38      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

end  by  the  mind  of  the  present  age.  Other  times 
have  first  been  taught  of  the  nature  of  God  and 
then  have  turned  to  the  service  of  man.  It  may 
be  the  distinction  of  the  present  age  to  reverse  this 
order  of  religious  experience  and  to  rediscover  the 
knowledge  of  God  through  the  doing  of  duty.  It 
may  be  that  beyond  the  ethical  renaissance  of  the 
present  time  there  is  waiting  a  revival  of  religion. 
As  philanthropy  reconsiders  its  foundations,  it  may 
find  that  the  word  which  it  obeys  :  "  Thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  prepares  the  mind 
to  receive  that  other  command  which  is  like  to 
it :  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God."  Chris- 
tian ethics  may  come  to  be  recognized,  not  as  a 
step-child  of  the  faith  of  the  past,  but  as  a  parent 
of  the  faith  of  the  future.  An  ethical  revival  may 
be  the  prophecy  of  a  new  theology,  in  which  the 
goodness  of  God  will  be  supreme.  The  call  to 
social  service  may  be  a  new  utterance  of  the  voice 
of  God.  Perhaps  the  very  life  of  Christianity  is 
being  borne  through  the  troubled  waters  of  the 
present  time  by  the  faithful  servants  of  its  human 
needs,  as  the  giant  Christopher  found  that  it  was 
the  Christ-child  whom  he  had  carried  stumblingly  to 
the  shore.  It  may  happen  again,  as  with  the  first 
disciples,  that  those  who  are  at  first  drawn  by  the 
character  of  Jesus  to  ethical  obedience,  will  be 
finally  led  by  him  toward  the  Source  of  his  ethical 
authority.  The  Christian  theology  of  the  future 
may  be  a  corollary  from  the  character  of  Jesus 
Christ. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   CHARACTER   OF  JESUS   CHRIST 

The  conditions  of  the  modern  world  give  new  sig- 
nificance to  the  problem  of  the  Christian  character. 
The  Christian  character  is,  however,  a  consequence 
of  the  imitation  of  Christ ;  the  reproduction,  under 
the  varying  conditions  of  different  ages,  of  the 
characteristic  aspects  of  the  conduct  of  Jesus.  A 
study  of  the  Christian  character  must,  therefore, 
begin  by  contemplating  the  moral  type  which 
the  Teacher  himself  illustrates. 

The  imitation  of  Christ  may  be  misdirected  in 
many  ways.  He  may  be  imitated  literally,  frag- 
mentarily,  capriciously,  as  though  each  act  or  say- 
ing expressed  his  total  purpose  and  had  no  relation 
to  time,  place,  race,  or  occasion.  He  may  be  imi- 
tated, on  the  other  hand,  overconfidently  or  arro- 
gantly, as  though  the  saying :  "Greater  things  than 
these  shall  ye  do,"  emancipated  his  disciples  from 
the  limitations  of  science  or  civilization  or  common 
sense.  A  rational  imitation  of  Christ  is  not  the 
conduct  of  a  mimic  or  a  puppet.  It  means  what 
the  imitation  of  other  characters  means,  —  an  influ- 
ence of  leadership,  power,  authority,  example,  ap- 
plied to  the  conditions  of  one's  own  life.  The  traits 
in  him  which  command  appreciation  are  applied, 

39 


40      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

not  to  suppress  one's  own  character,  but  to  enrich 
and  ennoble  it.  Jesus  comes  not  to  destroy,  but  to 
fulfil.  If  any  man  will  come  after  me,  he  says,  let 
him  take  up  his  own  cross,  his  own  burden,  his 
own  experience,  and  follow. 

What,  then,  was  the  character  of  Jesus  Christ  ? 
What  kind  of  person  is  this  from  whom  so  rich 
and  persuasive  a  teaching  proceeds  ?  Detaching 
ourselves,  so  far  as  practicable,  from  the  traditions 
and  presuppositions  which  thrust  themselves  be- 
tween the  Gospels  and  their  readers ;  setting  our- 
selves in  imagination,  if  we  may,  on  a  hillside  in 
Galilee  or  in  a  street  in  Jerusalem  in  the  days  of 
Jesus,  what,  we  ask  ourselves,  is  the  impression  we 
receive  from  this  new  teacher  who  arrests  our 
attention  and  compels  our  obedience? 

It  would  be  of  extraordinary  interest  if  we  might, 
in  the  first  place,  picture  to  ourselves  the  exter- 
nal appearance  and  physical  traits  of  Jesus.  The 
simple  record,  however,  offers  practically  no  mate- 
rial for  the  reproduction  of  his  face  or  form.  It 
is  indeed  reported,  not  without  great  suggestive- 
ness,  that  the  first  impression  of  his  teaching  was 
for  the  moment  created,  not  so  much  by  its  con- 
tents, striking  as  these  were,  as  by  the  demeanor 
and  personality  of  the  Teacher.  "  He  taught  as 
one  having  authority,"  is  the  first  comment  of  the 
narrator.  There  was  a  calmness  and  mastery,  a 
force  and  restraint,  an  originality  and  reverence, 
which  dominated  the  scene.  As  Jesus  proceeded 
in  his  ministry,  this  effect  of  his  personal  bearing 


THE    CHARACTER    OF   JESUS    CHRIST  4 1 

is  often  evident.  To  a  soldier  he  seemed  like  a 
commander  who  was  born  to  be  obeyed ;  to  many 
a  hearer  he  had  but  to  say,  "  Follow  me,"  and 
busy  men  left  all  and  followed ;  to  minds  possessed 
by  devils  he  had  but  to  speak  and  they  grew  self- 
controlled  and  calm  ;  to  those  who  would  seize  him 
at  the  last  his  very  presence  seemed  to  strike  a 
blow,  so  that,  as  the  fourth  Gospel  says,  "they 
went  backward,  and  fell  to  the  ground." 1  Little 
children,  on  the  other  hand,  came  when  he  called, 
and  nestled  in  his  arms ;  women  followed  him  and 
ministered  unto  him  gladly.  Command  and  sym- 
pathy, power  and  charm,  must  have  been  singu- 
larly blended  in  a  person  who  drew  to  himself 
these  varied  types  of  loyalty.  Authority  and 
affection,  playfulness  and  gravity,  the  light  of 
love  and  the  shadow  of  rebuke,  must  have 
touched  in  quick  succession  the  face  of  Jesus. 
He  smiles  at  the  sport  of  children ;  he  perceives 
with  sympathetic  imagination  the  symbolism  of  the 
woman's  costly  gift ;  he  stands  before  the  repre- 
sentative of  Caesar  and  asserts  himself  a  king; 
and  all  these  moods,  childlike,  poetic,  kingly,  are 
genuine  and  consistent  expressions  of  his  many- 
sided  character. 

These  suggestions  of  external  demeanor  are, 
however,  far  from  establishing  any  trustworthy 
tradition  of  the  physical  appearance  of  Jesus. 
Pious  imagination  soon  pictured  him  as  fulfilling 
in  form  and  face  what  had  been  prophesied  of  the 

1  John  xviii.  6. 


42      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

Messiah,  and  later  history  has  perpetuated  in  the 
portraiture  of  Jesus  the  various  ideals  of  physical 
manhood  which  have  prevailed  in  successive  ages 
of  the  Church.  The  Gospels,  on  the  other  hand, 
preserve  to  us  no  portrait  of  the  Teacher.  They 
were  not  written  to  satisfy  the  curiosity  of  future 
ages ;  they  were  the  artless  and  incidental  sum- 
mary of  an  oral  tradition,  designed  to  perpetuate 
the  record  of  the  Master's  deeds  and  words.  The 
same  unconsciousness  and  spontaneity  appear  in 
Jesus  himself.  He  is  not  posing  before  the  glass  of 
the  future.  He  is  indifferent  to  great  occasions  or 
striking  effects.  He  lavishes  his  care  on  single, 
obscure  and  unresponsive  lives.  He  is  marked  by 
what  has  been  called  accessibility,1  the  unassuming 
candor  of  the  unconstrained  and  unaffected  life. 
He  is  occupied  in  doing  not  his  own  will,  but  the 
will  of  the  Father  who  sends  him,  and  in  accom- 
plishing the  work  which  is  given  him  to  do.  Thus 
it  happens  that  we  are  more  familiar  with  the 
spiritual  traits  of  Jesus  than  with  his  outward 
form.  His  profoundest  utterances  and  even  his 
private  thoughts  are  preserved  to  us  by  the  reten- 
tiveness  of  love,  while  his  physical  appearance  can 
be  at  the  best  only  inferred  from  the  impression 
created  by  his  acts  and  words.     His  face  was  once 

1  Fairbairn,  "  Philosophy  of  the  Christian  Religion,"  1902, 
p.  361 :  "  There  are  multitudes  of  the  saintly  less  accessible  than  He, 
...  so  remote  from  all  weakness  and  so  severe  to  self-indulgence 
that  we  dare  not  confess  our  sins  in  their  presence.  .  .  .  But  we 
can  do  this  before  Him." 


THE    CHARACTER    OF   JESUS    CHRIST  43 

a  key  to  his  character;  his  character  must  now 
suggest  his  face.1 

What,  then,  one  asks  again,  were  the  special 
traits  of  the  character  of  Jesus  Christ  ?  Dismiss- 
ing for  the  moment  the  inquiries  which  con- 
cern themselves  with  the  interior  nature  of  the 
person  of  Jesus,  and  approaching  him  as  one 
might  have  done  when  he  taught  the  people  by 
the  lake,  or  faced  the  Governor  in  his  palace, 
what  is  the  main  impression  which  his  character 
creates  ?  The  question  seems  as  simple  and  un- 
embarrassed as  any  historical  question  can  be.  It 
demands  neither  theological  subtlety  nor  critical 
erudition.  On  every  page  of  the  first  three  Gos- 
pels stands  this  character  of  singular  positiveness 
and  consistency,  whose  most  conspicuous  traits  it 
would  appear  difficult  to  mistake.2 


1  The  history  of  the  portraiture  of  Jesus  is  told  with  abundant 
learning  by  von  Dobschutz,  "  Christusbilder,"  1899,  p.  viii  ("Texte 
und  Untersuchungen,"  Gebhardt  und  Harnack,  Bd.  XVIII)  :  "  In  its 
legends  a  people  often  registers  the  best  of  its  religious  feeling." 
See  also,  Kehn,  "Jesus  of  Nazara,"  tr.  Ransom,  1876,  II,  190  ff.; 
Wiinsche,  "  Der  lebensfreudige  Jesus,"  1876,  ss.  65  ff.,  with  the 
descriptive  summaries  of  Strauss,  Konig,  Renan,  and  Keim ;  H. 
Schell  (R.  C.  Professor  in  Wurzburg),  "Christus,"  1903  (89  illus- 
trations) ;  Farrar,  "  Life  of  Christ  as  represented  in  Art,"  1894 
(with  many  illustrations);  Sir  W.  Bayliss,  "  Rex  Regum,  a  Painter's 
Study  of  the  Likeness  of  Christ,"  1898  (a  somewhat  emotional 
defence  of  the  catacomb  frescoes,  but  with  many  illustrations  from 
the  masters);  H.  D.  M.  Spence  (Dean  of  Gloucester),  "Early 
Christianity  and  Paganism,"  1902  (with  interesting  illustrations, 
pp.   284  ff.). 

2  W.  Boyd  Carpenter  (Lord  Bishop  of  Ripon),  "  Introduction  to 


44      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

The  impressions  made  by  the  character  of  Jesus 
have  been,  however,  as  various  as  the  temperaments 
and  needs  of  different  times  and  men.  Jesus  has 
been  called  the  light  of  the  world,  but  this  light  has 
been  broken  as  though  passing  through  a  prism, 
and  each  color  of  its  spectrum  has  seemed  to  some 
minds  the  complete  radiation.  He  had,  it  has  been 
variously  urged,  the  character  of  a  fanatic,  an  an- 
archist, a  socialist,  a  dreamer,  a  mystic,  an  Essene. 
It  is  one  of  the  evidences  of  the  moral  greatness 
of  Jesus  that  each  period  in  Christian  history,  each 
social  or  political  change,  has  brought  to  view  some 
new  aspect  of  his  character  and  given  him  a  new 
claim  to  reverence.1  From  these  various  concep- 
tions there  have  emerged  two,  of  exceptional  per- 
manence, each  of  which  represents  to  many  minds 
the  special  traits  of  his  moral  personality.  One 
view  interprets  his  character  in  terms  of  asceticism, 
the  other  in  terms  of  eestheticism.     One  contem- 

the  Study  of  the  Scriptures,"  1903,  pp.  131,  132:  "It  is  this  char- 
acter, apart  from  any  miraculous  or  supernatural  accessories,  which 
has  profoundly  impressed  mankind :  it  is  this  character  which  still 
holds  up,  as  it  were,  its  own  ideal  to  humanity.  .  .  .  Our  belief  in 
Jesus  Christ  must  be  based  upon  moral  conviction :  not  upon  physical 
wonder.  ...  In  other  words,  we  must  invert  the  process.  .  .  . 
You  can  never  compel  moral  admiration  by  physical  power,  but  you 
can  understand  that  the  lower  ranges  of  life  may  be  subservient  to 
one  whose  greatness  lies  in  the  higher,  i.e.  in  the  moral  order  of 
life." 

1  The  most  noteworthy  of  modern  interpretations  of  the  charac- 
ter of  Jesus,  from  Strauss  to  Naumann,  are  analyzed  in  the  interest- 
ing volume  of  Weinel,  "  Jesus  im  neunzehnten  Jahrhundert,"  6te 
Aufl.,  1904. 


THE    CHARACTER    OF   JESUS    CHRIST  4$ 

plates  the  suffering  of  Jesus,  the  other  his  joy. 
One  is  the  view  of  ecclesiasticism,  the  other  is 
the  view  of  humanism.  Tradition  perpetuates  the 
first,  imagination  welcomes  the  second. 

On  the  one  hand  is  the  prevailing  tradition  which 
associates  Jesus  with  the  Messianic  prophecies. 
When  the  Second  Isaiah  writes  of  the  servant  of 
God  :  "  He  is  despised  and  rejected  of  men,  a  man 
of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief ;  he  hath  no 
form  or  comeliness,  we  did  esteem  him  smitten  of 
God  and  afflicted  "  ;  whom,  it  is  asked,  could  these 
passages  prefigure  if  it  was  not  him  who  expressly 
claimed  to  fulfil  the  Messianic  promise  ?  Thus 
the  character  of  Jesus  becomes  a  historical  neces- 
sity. The  Teacher  of  the  New  Testament  is  the 
answer  to  the  hope  of  the  Old  Testament.  He 
was  the  Lamb  of  God,  the  patient  victim,  the  will- 
ing sacrifice.  The  ethical  type,  therefore,  which 
shall  reproduce  his  character  can  be  none  other 
than  a  resigned,  self-mortifying,  ascetic  type.  The 
Hellenic  character  of  harmony,  symmetry,  virility, 
is  supplanted  by  the  Hebraic  type  of  patience, 
pathos,  pain.  The  Christian  character,  un-Hellenic 
and  other-worldly,  utters  the  poignant  note  of  suf- 
fering Israel. 

This  tradition  of  the  character  of  Jesus  was 
early  accepted  by  the  Church.  The  Christian  life, 
it  was  taught,  could  be  indeed  attained  in  a  cer- 
tain degree  under  the  conditions  of  the  secular 
world  ;  but  the  Vita  Religiosa  was  a  product  of  the 
asceticism  of  the  monastic  cell.     It  was  intended, 


46      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

as  Strauss  has  said,  "  to  depict  as  strikingly  as  pos- 
sible the  contrast  between  the  pop^r)  Oeov  and  the 
popfyr)  8ov\ov."  l  Here,  also,  is  the  dominant  ideal 
of  mediaeval  Christian  art.  With  but  few  exceptions 
the  Christ  of  the  masters  is  the  Man  of  Sorrows, 
whom  it  hath  pleased  the  Lord  to  bruise,  and  who 
is  stricken  for  the  transgressions  of  his  people. 
One  of  the  most  eminent  of  German  philosophers  2 
has  set  forth  in  detail  this  conception  of  the  char- 
acter of  Jesus.  The  Christian  character,  says 
Professor  Paulsen,  is  marked  by  abnegation  ( Welt- 
verleugnung),  the  Greek  character  by  appreciation 
(  Weltbejahung) ;  the  one  represents  the  scorn  of 
the  natural,  the  other  the  development  of  the 
natural.  The  Greeks  prized  intellectual  develop- 
ment, the  Christians  distrusted  it.  To  the  Greeks 
courage  was  a  cardinal  virtue  ;  the  Christians  were 
taught  to  resist  not  evil.  All  Greek  virtues  were, 
therefore,  in  the  light  of  Christianity  "  splendid 
vices."  All  that  was  of  worth  in  Greece  was 
worthless  in  Christianity.  For  a  Greek  to  become 
a  Christian  it  was  necessary  that  the  old  man  should 
die  and  a  new  man  be  born.  Thus  the  Christian 
character,  self-effacing,  ascetic,  contrary  to  nature, 
admirable  though  it  may  have  once  appeared,  be- 


1  "Life  of  Jesus,"  tr.  Marian  Evans,  1856,  p.  202. 

2  Friedrich  Paulsen,  "System  der  Ethik,"  1889,  ss.  50  ff.,  "Die 
Lebensanschauung  des  Christentums."  Rejoinders  to  Paulsen  are 
made,  among  others,  by  Jacoby,  "Neutest.  Ethik,"  1899,  ss.  464  ff.; 
Gallwitz, "  Das  Problem  der  Ethik,"  1891,  ss.  271  ff. ;  E.  Grimm,  "  Die 
Ethik  Jesu,"  1903,  Kap.  18,  "  Lebensbejahung  und  Lebensver- 
neinung." 


THE    CHARACTER    OF   JESUS    CHRIST  47 

comes  impracticable  for  a  healthy-minded  man  in 
the  modern  world.1 

On  the  other  hand  is  the  interpretation  of  the 
character  of  Jesus  in  terms  of  aestheticism,  as  the 
type  of  gladness,  graciousness,  spiritual  peace,  and 
joy.  According  to  Renan,  a  young  Galilean 
peasant,  "  sprung  from  the  ranks  of  the  people,"  of 
parents  "  of  humble  station  living  by  their  toil,"  is 
entranced  by  the  vision  of  the  Divine  life,  and 
gives  himself  with  delight  to  its  expression.  "An 
exquisite  perception  of  nature  furnished  him  with 
expressive  images."  "A  remarkable  penetration, 
which  we  call  genius,  set  off  his  aphorisms." 
"  Tenderness  of  heart  was  in  him  transformed  into 
infinite  sweetness,  vague  poetry,  universal  charm." 
"  His  lovely  character,  and  doubtless  one  of  those 
transporting  countenances  which  sometimes  appear 
in  the  Hebrew  race,  created  round  him  a  circle  of 
fascination."  In  the  same  spirit  Strauss  remarked  : 
"Jesus  appears  as  a  naturally  lovely  character 
(eine  sckbne  Natur  von  Hause  aus),  which  needed 
but  to  unfold  and  to  become  conscious  of  itself."  2 

1  The  same  conclusion  was  reached  by  Augustine  (L.  Stein, 
"Die  sociale  Frage  im  Lichte  der  Philosophic,"  1897,  s«  244)  • 
"  His  doctrine  .  .  .  has  a  dark  and  monastic  quality  (etwas  mon- 
chisch  Finsteres)  which  is  hostile  to  social  and  philosophical  in- 
quiries based  on  confidence  in  human  nature."  So  many  modern 
philosophers;  e.g.  F.  H.  Bradley  (International  Journal  of  Ethics, 
October,  1894,  p.  25)  :  "We  have  lived  a  long  time  now  the  pro- 
fessors of  a  creed  which  no  one  consistently  can  practise,  and 
which,  if  practised,  would  be  as  immoral  as  it  is  unreal." 

8  Renan,  "Vie  de  Jesus,"  I3me  ed.,  1867,  pp.  74  m;  Strauss, 


48      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

It  is  interesting  to  recall  the  many  incidents  in 
the  life  of  Jesus  which  tend  to  confirm  each  of  these 
impressions  of  his  character.  On  the  one  hand, 
there  is  a  quality  of  self-sacrifice  in  his  experience 

"  Das  Leben  Jesu,  fur  das  deutsche  Volk  bearbeitet,"  2te  Aufl.,  1864. 
s.  208.  So,  Hase,  "Geschichte  Jesu,"  1876,  §  53:  "Jesus  defends 
human  life  from  the  asceticism  which  so  often  allies  itself  with  reli- 
gious earnestness.  ...  He  shares  freely  in  the  good  things  of  this 
life.  .  .  .  He  is  as  a  bridegroom  among  his  companions.  Never 
did  a  religious  hero  shun  so  little  the  joys  of  life."  So  also,  though 
in  less  unmeasured  words,  Keim,  "  Geschichte  Jesu  von  Nazara," 
1867,  I,  458:  "Is  not  the  primitive  description  of  him  as  being 
gentle  and  joyous  (seine  Herzlichkeit  und  die  milde  Heiterkeit) 
—  the  character  which  Strauss  assigns  to  him — justified  by  the 
record  ?  "  One  of  the  most  curious  illustrations  of  scholarly  can- 
dor is  the  somersault  of  conviction  performed  by  A.  Wunsche  in 
his  "Der  lebensfreudige  Jesu,"  1876.  In  1870  he  published 
his  "Leiden  des  Messias,"  describing  with  much  erudition  the 
Messianic  ideal  of  lowly  suffering  in  its  fulfilment  through  Christ. 
Six  years  later  Jesus  appears  to  him  in  a  wholly  opposite  char- 
acter, joyous,  triumphant,  with  a  delight  in  life  in  which  the 
Talmudic  teachers  could  find  no  satisfaction,  s.  24 :  "  My  problem 
is  to  deliver  the  figure  of  Jesus  from  the  unhistorical  shadows  in 
which  it  has  laid,  and  set  it  in  the  sunshine  where  it  belongs." 
See  also  the  essay  of  I.  Zangwill,  "Dreamers  of  the  Ghetto,"  1899, 
pp.  491,  492:  "I  give  the  Jews  a  Christ^they  can  now  accept,  the 
Christians  a  Christ  they  have  forgotten  .  .  .  Christ,  not  the  tortured 
God,  but  the  joyous  comrade,  the  friend  of  all  simple  souls  .  .  . 
not  the  theologian  spinning  barren  subtleties,  but  the  man  of  genius 
protesting  against  all  forms  and  dogmas  that  would  replace  the 
direct  vision  and  the  living  ecstasy,  .  .  .  the  lover  of  warm  life, 
and  warm  sunlight,  and  all  that  is  fresh  and  simple  and  pure  and 
beautiful."  So  in  many  popular  studies  of  the  Gospels,  e.g.  the 
fresh  and  thoughtful  narrative  by  W.  J.  Dawson,  "The  Life  of 
Christ,"  1 901,  pp.  87  ff.  :  "  He  became  the  incarnation  of  the  spirit 
of  joy,  the  symbol  of  the  bliss  of  life.  .  .  .  Christ's  gracious  gayety 
of  heart  proved  contagious." 


THE    CHARACTER   OF   JESUS    CHRIST  49 

which  removes  him  from  all  positive  relation  with 
Hellenism.1  A  whole  series  of  virtues  —  humility, 
self-forgetfulness,  the  bearing  of  burdens  not  one's 
own  —  appear  in  Jesus,  for  which  no  room  is  found 
in  the  Greek  ideals  of  aofypoavv-q  and  fieyaXoyfrvxta. 
Such  a  saying  as  "  He  that  will  be  chiefest  among 
you  shall  be  the  servant  of  all,"  would  have  seemed, 
as  St.  Paul  said  of  the  crucified  Christ,  "  unto  the 
Greeks  foolishness."  2  On  the  other  hand,  there  is 
heard  throughout  the  ministry  of  Jesus  an  under- 
lying note  of  tranquil  and  lofty  joy.  He  is  quick  to 
note  the  beautiful  in  nature  and  in  character.  He 
detects  qualities  worthy  of  love  even  in  unlovely 
lives.  In  his  teaching  the  instinct  for  spiritual  prin- 
ciples is  met  by  the  instinct  for  artistic  expression. 
The  universe  is  picturesque  and  eloquent  to  his 
sensitive  mind,  and  at  the  end  of  a  short  career, 
abounding  in  misinterpretations  and  disappoint- 
ments, there  still  lingers  the  happy  tradition  of  his 
spiritual  joy.3     "These  things  have  I  spoken  unto 

1  A.  Harnack,  "  What  is  Christianity  ?  "  tr.  Saunders,  1901,  p.  37 : 
"  The  picture  of  Jesus'  life  and  his  discourses  stand  in  no  relation 
with  the  Greek  spirit.  .  .  .  That  he  was  ever  in  touch  with  the 
thoughts  of  Plato  or  the  Porch  ...  it  is  absolutely  impossible  to 
maintain."  2  I  Cor.  i.  23. 

3  Ehrhardt,  "Der  Grundcharakter  der  Ethik  Jesu,"  1895,  s.  no: 
"  In  Jesus  the  Messianic  idea  is  rather  a  means  than  an  end  (mehr 
ein  instrumentaler  Begriff  als  ein  Zvveckbegriff).  He  used  its  form 
for  the  expression  of  his  ideal.  The  ascetic  element  in  the  ethics  of 
Jesus  is  its  transient,  the  service  of  God  its  permanent,  element." 
See  also,  Strauss,  "  Leben  Jesu,"  2te  Aufl.,  1864,  s.  34 :  "This  joyous, 
continuous  conduct  of  a  lovely  soul  .  .  .  may  be  described  as  the 
Hellenic  quality  in  Jesus." 
£ 


50      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

you,"  says  the  fourth  Gospel,  "that  my  joy  might 
remain  in  you,  and  that  your  joy  might  be  full." 1 

1  John  xv.  1 1.  In  a  voluminous  work  (H.  S.  Chamberlain,  "  Die 
Grundlagen  des  neunzehnten  Jahrhunderts,"  2  Bd.,  5te  Aufl., 
1904,  I,  ss.  219  ff.)  which,  though  written  by  an  Englishman, 
has  attracted  attention  chiefly  in  Germany,  the  author  raises  the 
question  whether  this  fusion  of  the  Hellenic  and  Hebraic  spirit 
in  Jesus  may  not  be  referred  to  the  conditions  of  his  birth.  Gali- 
lee, he  remarks,  lay  on  the  main  track  of  Greek  migration  toward 
the  East,  and  its  population  must  have  been  one  of  mixed  blood 
and  descent.  It  may  well  have  happened,  he  concludes,  that 
Jesus  was  thus  a  child  of  two  races,  and  that  the  Hellenic  traits 
which  are  so  marked  in  him  were  his,  not  by  supernatural  gift,  but 
by  inherited  right.  "  One  who  asserts  that  Jesus  was  a  Jew  is 
either  ignorant  or  insincere."  The  probability  "that  Jesus  was 
not  a  Jew  and  had  not  a  drop  of  pure  Jewish  blood  in  his  veins  is 
so  great  that  it  approaches  nearly  to  certainty."  "  By  religion  and 
education  he  was  unquestionably  a  Jew,  but  in  race  in  all  proba- 
bility not."  "  I  have  felt  obliged  to  enter  in  some  detail  into  this 
question,  because  I  do  not  find  in  any  other  work  that  the  facts  in 
the  case  are  clearly  brought  together." 

This  venturesome  hypothesis  of  mixed  descent,  though  it  is  not 
without  plausibility,  is  not  only  unsupported  by  positive  tradition, 
but  is  altogether  in  conflict  with  the  earliest  tradition  of  Jesus.  If 
among  the  first  disciples  there  had  been  the  least  intimation  of  extra- 
Jewish  descent  in  him,  —  and  the  facts  of  his  birth  must  have  been 
familiarly  reported  by  the  companions  of  his  childhood,  —  it  could 
but  have  happened  that  as  the  new  religion  expanded  into  the 
Hellenic  world,  its  claim  to  authority  through  an  origin  partially 
Greek  must  have  been  repeatedly  emphasized.  The  Epistle  to  the 
Romans  is  in  large  part  devoted  to  commending  the  Gospel  of  Christ 
to  the  extra-Jewish  world,  and  its  second  chapter,  devoted  to  the 
distinction  between  Jew  and  Gentile,  must  have  called  attention 
to  the  fact  that  Jesus  represented  in  himself  both  Gentile  and 
Jew.  The  fourth  Gospel,  deliberately  appropriating  Greek  phi- 
losophy as  the  witness  to  Christ,  must  have  recalled  the  natural 
right  of  Jesus  to  a  place  in  Greek  philosophy.    The  hypothesis  of 


THE   CHARACTER   OF   JESUS    CHRIST  5 1 

Striking,  however,  as  are  both  these  traits  of  the 
character  of  Jesus,  it  is  far  from  probable  that  they 
touch  its  deepest  note.  The  asceticism  of  Jesus, 
however  un-Hellenic  it  may  be,  and  his  delight  in 
life,  however  un-Messianic  it  may  be,  are  obviously 
not  ends  in  his  teaching,  but  incidents  along  his 
way.  They  are  the  by-products  thrown  off  in  the 
development  of  his  career.  The  problem  of  the 
character  of  Jesus  first  comes  into  view  when  be- 
hind his  sufferings  and  his  joy  there  is  observed 
a  quality  of  spiritual  life  which  makes  these  various 
experiences  so  subordinate  and  contributory  that 
they  become  the  mere  rhythm  of  his  step  as  he 
moves  steadily  toward  his  supreme  desire.1    The 

Chamberlain,  though  ingenious  and  at  its  first  statement  striking, 
is  in  reality  a  superfluous  and  unverified  interpretation  of  a  char- 
acter which  is  simply  larger  than  the  limits  of  national  traits,  and 
in  which  Hebraism  and  Hellenism  are  but  formal  names  for  piety 
and  joy. 

1  So  Keim,  *  Geschichte  Jesu  von  Nazara,"  1867,  I,  445  :  "... 
a  Galilean  in  the  freshness  and  susceptibility  of  his  sense  of  nature 
in  all  her  forms,  a  Hebrew  in  his  contemplative  seriousness  and  the 
depth  of  power  of  his  life  with  God.  .  .  .  Let  us  at  the  same  time 
confess  that  humanity  can  elsewhere  hardly  exhibit  the  even  balance 
of  centrifugal  and  centripetal  forces."  O.  Holtzmann,  "  War  Jesus 
Ekstatiker  ? "  1903,  s.  139:  "It  is  the  quality  of  paradox  and 
contradiction  of  traits  which  often  makes  a  person  attractive. 
The  contrasts  of  tranquillity  and  enthusiasm  in  Jesus  attached  his 
followers  to  him,  and  the  union  of  these  opposite  qualities  was 
not  the  least  part  of  the  secret  of  his  first  results."  The  contrast 
and  union  of  types  is  admirably  stated  by  Hugh  Black,  "  Culture 
and  Restraint,"  1901,  p.  349:  "He  preserves  the  Hellenic  spirit 
from  degradation  and  selfishness.  .  .  .  He  saves  the  Hebraic 
spirit  from  formalism." 


52      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

explorer  in  a  rugged  country  does  not  seek  for 
hardships.  He  expects  them  as  the  cost  of  success. 
He  accepts  the  solitude,  the  fatigue,  the  perils,  as 
incidents  along  his  way.  He  is  no  more  an  ascetic 
than  he  is  a  Sybarite;  he  is  bent  on  his  errand 
and  takes  the  risk  of  his  road.  Something  like 
this  is  the  attitude  of  Jesus  toward  asceticism.  He 
neither  courts  nor  shuns  suffering.  He  is  not  con- 
sciously imitating  the  sorrows  foretold  of  the  Mes- 
siah ;  but  he  is  doing  the  Messiah's  work,  and,  as 
the  Prophet  had  anticipated,  he  is  despised  and 
rejected  of  men.  His  asceticism  is  real,  but  it  is 
incidental.  The  pains  and  pleasures  of  the  body 
and  the  soul  are  the  rough  places  and  fair  pros- 
pects which  meet  him  as  he  goes.  He  is  neither 
a  mediaeval  saint  nor  a  Galilean  dreamer,  but  a 
Teacher  whose  pains  and  pleasures  are  but  the 
scenery  and  environment  of  the  soul. 

What,  then,  was  the  first  impression  of  this 
Teacher,  which  seized  upon  his  hearers  with  such 
extraordinary  compulsion,  that  when  he  said,  "  Fol- 
low me,"  men  left  all  to  follow  ?  The  answer  to  this 
question  concerning  the  original  and  general  im- 
pression of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  seems  beyond  dis- 
pute. The  immediate  effect  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
was  an  effect  of  power,  of  authority  and  mastery, 
the  commanding  impressiveness  of  a  leader  of  men. 
It  is  striking  to  notice  how  often  this  word  "  power  " 
is  applied  in  the  New  Testament  to  the  influence 
of  Jesus.  "The  multitude  glorified  God,"  says 
Matthew,  "  who  had  given  such  power  unto  men." 


THE    CHARACTER   OF   JESUS    CHRIST  53 

"The  Kingdom  of  God  comes  with  power,"  says 
Mark.  "  His  word  was  with  power,"  says  Luke. 
"  Thou  hast  given  him  power  over  all  flesh,"  says 
John.  "God  anointed  Jesus  of  Nazareth  with 
power,"  says  the  Book  of  Acts.  "  The  power  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  says  Paul.  His  ministry, 
that  is  to  say,  was,  first  of  all,  dynamic,  commanding, 
authoritative.  When  he  announced  the  principles 
of  his  teaching,  he  did  not  prove  or  argue  or 
threaten  like  the  Scribes ;  he  swayed  the  multitude 
by  personal  power.  It  was  the  same  throughout  his 
ministry.  He  called  men  from  their  boats,  their 
tax-booths,  their  homes ;  and  they  looked  up  into 
his  face  and  obeyed.  He  commends  the  instinct 
of  the  soldier  who  gives  orders  to  those  below  him 
because  he  has  received  orders  from  above. 

What  is  the  note  of  character  which  is  touched  in 
such  incidents  as  these  ?  It  is  the  note  of  strength. 
This  is  no  ascetic,  abandoning  the  world;  no 
"joyous  comrade,"  delighting  in  the  world;  here 
is  the  quiet  consciousness  of  mastery,  the  author- 
ity of  the  leader,  the  confidence  which  makes  him 
able  to  declare  that  a  life  built  on  his  sayings  is 
built  on  a  rock.  Jesus  is  no  gentle  visionary,  no 
contemplative  saint,  no  Lamb  of  God,  except  in  the 
experience  of  suffering;  he  is  a  Person  whose 
dominating  trait  is  force,  the  scourger  of  the 
traders,  the  defier  of  the  Pharisees,  the  command- 
ing Personality  whose  words  are  with  the  authority 
of  power.  Women,  it  is  true,  were  drawn  with 
peculiar  loyalty  to  the  service  of  Jesus,  and  it  has 


54      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

been  inferred  from  such  feminine  devotion  that  the 
character  of  Jesus  must  have  had  in  it  more  of  the 
womanly  than  the  masculine.  Quite  the  contrary 
inference  would  be  indicated  by  the  ordinary  re- 
lationships between  women  and  men.  It  is  not 
feminine  traits  in  men  which  attract  women,  but 
masculine  qualities  of  force,  initiative,  and  leader- 
ship. Gracious  consideration  for  women  marked 
indeed  the  thought  of  Jesus,  from  the  time  when 
he  went  down  to  Nazareth  and  was  subject  to  his 
mother,  to  the  day  when  he  commended  his  mother 
to  the  disciple  whom  he  loved;  but  for  softness 
and  sentimentality,  such  as  characterizes  the  femi- 
nine man,  there  was  no  room  in  his  rugged, 
nomadic,  homeless  life. 

From  whatever  side  we  approach  the  life  of 
Jesus  this  impression  of  mastery  confronts  us.  On 
the  one  hand  is  the  ethical  aspect  of  strength, 
to  which  our  later  inquiries  must  repeatedly  return. 
Solemn  exaltations  of  mood,  experiences  of  pro- 
longed temptation,  moments  of  mystic  rapture, 
occur,  indeed,  in  his  career ;  but  when  we  consider 
what  a  part  these  emotional  agitations  have  played 
in  the  history  of  religion,  one  is  profoundly  im- 
pressed by  the  sanity,  reserve,  composure,  and 
steadiness  of  the  character  of  Jesus.  He  is  no 
example  of  the  M  twice-born  "  conception  of  piety, 
which  has  been  of  late  presented  to  us  with  such 
vigor  and  charm.  His  "  Religion  of  Healthy- 
mindedness  "  is  not  a  psychopathic  emotionalism, 
but  a  normal,  rational,  ethical  growth.     His  method 


THE   CHARACTER   OF  JESUS    CHRIST  55 

is  not  that  of  ecstasy,  vision,  nervous  agitation, 
issuing  in  neurological  saintliness ;  it  is  educative, 
sane,  consistent  with  wise  service  of  the  world, 
capable  of  being  likened  in  an  infinite  variety  of 
ways  to  the  decisions  and  obligations  which  every 
honest  man  must  meet.1 


1  The  captivating  lectures  of  my  distinguished  and  beloved  col- 
league, William  James  ("The  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience," 
1902),  abound,  it  is  needless  to  say,  in  illuminating  suggestions  con- 
cerning the  expansion  of  life  through  religious  emotion  ;  and,  in 
spite  of  his  startling  pluralistic  theism,  the  conclusion  that  "the 
conscious  person  is  continuous  with  a  wider  self  through  which 
saving  experiences  come  "  makes  an  epoch  in  psychology.  The 
sweep  and  charm  of  the  discussion  cannot,  however,  obscure  the 
fact  that  among  the  varieties  of  religious  experience  which  come 
under  consideration,  no  place  is  found  for  a  character  like  that  of 
Jesus  Christ.  The  M  once-born  "  are  dismissed  as  an  imperfect  type, 
in  whom  "optimism  maybe  quasi-pathological,"  —  a  type  which 
culminates  in  Walt  Whitman,  and  in  which  the  great  names  of  con- 
structive and  rational  religion  hardly  appear.  St.  Theresa  is,  to 
Professor  James,  an  important  "  document,"  and  St.  John  of  the 
cross,  and  Mr.  Ratisbonne,  and  Mr.  Dresser  ;  but  Luther  is  inter- 
esting only  when  he  is  recalling  his  spiritual  tortures  while  a  monk  ; 
and  Schleiermacher's  "  Discourses  on  Religion  "  are  unaccounted 
for  ;  and  while  the  coldness  of  Channing's  bedroom  gets  atten- 
tion, the  warmth  of  his  religious  life  is  unexplained.  One  of  the 
most  curious  of  the  copious  footnotes  in  this  monumental  study  of 
human  documents  is  the  allusion  to  an  evangelical  estimate  of 
Channing  (p.  488).  He  was,  it  is  reported,  "excluded  from  the 
highest  form  of  religious  life  by  the  extraordinary  rectitude  of  his 
character."  No  wonder  that  Professor  James  remarks,  in  comment, 
that  "  the  twice-born  look  down  upon  the  rectilinear  consciousness 
of  life  ...  as  not  properly  religion."  A  religion  rendered  imper- 
fect by  perfectness  of  character  seems  to  present  a  paradox  which 
American  slang  would  describe  as  "  the  limit."  This  sense  of  lack 
reaches  its  climax  when  we  observe  the  almost  complete  absence 


56      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

On  the  other  hand  is  the  intellectual  aspect  of 
the  same  quality  of  power,  —  a  strength  of  reason- 
ing, a  sagacity,  insight,  and  alertness  of  mind,  which 
give  him  authority  over  the  mind  not  less  than  the 
will.  It  has  often  been  assumed  that  Jesus  was  an 
untutored  peasant,  an  inspired  working-man,  whose 
intuitions  were  his  only  guide ;  and  it  is  undoubt- 
edly true  that  his  intellectual  gifts  had  not  been 
trained  in  Rabbinical  schools  of  academic  legalism. 
"  How  knoweth  this  man  letters,"  asked  the  Phari- 
sees, "  having  never  learned  ? "  —  learned,  as  they 
probably  meant  to   say,  as   a   student  from  the 

of  reference  to  the  character  of  Jesus  Christ.  Among  the  "  varie- 
ties of  religious  experience,"  here,  it  would  seem,  was  one  which 
deserved  consideration  ;  yet  it  is  noticed  in  a  single  footnote,  where 
Harnack  is  cited  as  suggesting  that  "  Jesus  felt  about  evil  and  dis- 
ease much  as  our  mind-curers  do."  It  is  open  to  some  question 
whether  Harnack  would  regard  this  as  a  just  inference  from  a  pas- 
sage where  he  says  :  "  He  [Jesus]  calls  sickness  sickness,  and 
health  health,"  —  which  is  precisely  what  many  mind-curers  do  not 
admit.  However  this  may  be,  it  is  evident  that  the  character  of 
Jesus  is  not  a  document  to  Professor  James's  immediate  purpose. 
What  Strauss  ("Leben  Jesu  fur  das  deutsche  Volk  bearbeitet," 
1864,  s.  208)  has  said  is  too  obviously  true  to  give  Jesus  a  place 
among  the  "  twice-born  "  saints.  "  In  all  those  natures  which  have 
been  purified  through  struggle  and  violent  revolution  of  nature,  — 
as  in  Paul,  Augustine,  Luther,  —  there  remains  something  hard  and 
bitter  throughout  life  ;  but  of  this  quality  there  is  in  Jesus  not  a 
trace.  .  .  .  He  does  not  have  to  be  converted  and  to  begin  a  new 
and  different  life."  Many  a  cordial  admirer  of  Professor  James's 
genius  is  eagerly  hoping  that  his  promise  "  to  return  to  the  same 
subject  in  another  book"  may  be  happily  fulfilled,  and  that  he 
may  be  led  from  this  fascinating  discussion  of  the  pathology  of 
religion  to  the  interpretation  of  its  normal,  heroic,  rational, 
dynamic  types. 


THE    CHARACTER    OF   JESUS    CHRIST  57 

masters  of  the  law.1  Yet,  on  almost  every  page 
of  the  Gospels  there  are  indications  that  the 
new  master  was  neither  unlettered  nor  untrained, 
but  equipped  with  intellectual  as  well  as  spiritual 
authority. 

When,  at  the  beginning  of  his  work,  Jesus 
is  solicited  by  the  temptations  of  a  misused  min- 
istry, he  meets  them  all  with  the  weapons  of  the 
scholar ;  confronting  his  adversary  with  the  testi- 
mony of  the  Scriptures,  and  quoting  to  him,  "  It  is 
written ;  it  is  written."  When  the  time  arrives  to 
set  forth  the  principles  of  his  teaching,  he  expounds 
them  through  their  contrast  with  the  teachings  of 
the  past :  "  Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said, 
but  I  say  unto  you."  When  he  returns  to  Naza- 
reth, where  he  had  been  brought  up,  there  is 
delivered  unto  him  the  Book  to  read.  He  is  habitu- 
ally addressed  as  Teacher  or  Master.  When  his 
enemies  would  entangle  him,  they  assume  his 
familiarity  with  the  literature  which  they  cite,  and 
he  in  his  turn  does  not  hesitate  to  use  against 
them  their  own  weapons  of  dialectic,  so  that  they 
dare  ask  him  no  more  questions. 

Yet,  sufficiently  equipped  as  Jesus  was  to  adapt 
his  teaching  to  the  learning  of  his  age,  it  was 
not  his  scholastic  wisdom  which  most  impressed 
his    hearers.      There    was    perceived    in    him    a 

1  Weinel  (op.  cit.),  s.  59:  "To  see  how  far  Jesus  stood  from 
Pharisaism,  not  only  in  his  public  teaching  but  before  it,  we  need 
only  compare  his  figures  of  speech  with  those  of  Paul."  Compare 
H.  Holtzmann  (op.  cit.),  I,  ss.  119,  120. 


58      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

quality  of  insight  which,  instead  of  being  akin  to 
the  learning  of  scholars,  was  distinct  from  it,  and 
was  seen  to  be  an  original  endowment,  a  spiritual 
gift.  When  the  boy  Jesus  met  the  wise  men  of  Jeru- 
salem, it  was  this  untaught  wisdom  which  startled 
them.  He  lingered  among  the  doctors,  eager 
to  hear  and  to  ask  them  questions ;  and  when  his 
parents  sought  their  child,  he  turned  to  them  with 
one  of  those  deep,  strange  sayings  with  which 
other  children  sometimes  perplex  their  parents,  as 
though  they  were  listening  to  another  voice  and 
heard  a  command  their  parents  had  not  given. 
From  that  time  on,  as  it  is  written,  Jesus  increased, 
not  in  stature  only  and  in  charm,  but  in  wisdom.  He 
was  a  Teacher,  but  the  authority  of  his  teaching 
was  not  that  of  the  scribes.  His  wisdom  was  not 
erudition.  It  left,  not  an  impression  of  academic 
acquisition,  but  of  penetration,  discernment,  grasp. 
It  was  one  aspect  of  his  central  quality  of  power. 
It  has  been  said  that  the  distinction  between 
the  best  modern  practitioners  of  the  law  and 
men  of  the  second  order  lies  in  the  capacity 
to  discriminate  between  the  essential  point  on 
which  the  issue  should  be  determined,  and  the 
multitude  of  interesting  but  subordinate  issues 
which  the  case  may  suggest ;  and  a  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  has  remarked, 
concerning  a  leader  of  the  bar,  that  the  point  urged 
by  him  had  never  failed  to  be  the  point  which 
finally  determined  the  mind  of  the  court.  A  simi- 
lar statement  might  be  made  of  the  teaching  of 


THE    CHARACTER    OF   JESUS    CHRIST  59 

Jesus.  It  proceeds  directly  to  the  fundamental 
issue.  Many  aspects  of  life  which  might  appear 
to  others  of  importance  are  touched  by  him  with 
surprising  lightness,  but  without  preamble  or  am- 
plification he  touches  the  dominant  note  of  each 
situation  and  discerns  the  permanent  principle 
which  it  involves. 

His  principle  of  selection  from  the  earlier  tradi- 
tion is  marked  both  by  reverence  and  by  audacity. 
It  was  written :  "  Do  that  to  no  man  which  thou 
hatest."1  Jesus  rests  on  this  authority,  but  the 
saying  gets  new  significance  when  he  restates  it 
in  the  positive  form  of  the  Golden  Rule:  "What- 
soever ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye 
even  so  to  them."2  He  confirms  the  law  of  the 
Sabbath,  but  chooses  as  his  authority  the  ethics 
of  Hosea :  "  I  will  have  mercy,  and  not  sacrifice,"  3 
rather  than  the  theology  of  Exodus  :  "  In  six  days 
the  Lord  made  heaven  and  earth."4  He  does  not 
hesitate  to  discriminate  between  the  law  of  Moses 
and  the  law  of  God,6  with  something  of  that  dis- 
tinction between  form  and  spirit,  the  accidental  and 
the  essential,  which  is  now  described  as  the  critical 
spirit.  Jesus,  however,  was  not  a  critic,  but  a  seer. 
He  did  not  balance  and  weigh  the  various  tradi- 
tions ;  he  saw  the  truth  which  these  traditions,  with 
different  degrees  of  completeness,  had  desired  to 
express. 

1Tobitiv.  15.  *  Ex.  xx.  II, 

2  Matt.  vii.  12.  6  Matt.  xix.  8  ff. 

8  Hos.  vi.  6  j  Matt.  xii.  7. 


60      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

An  interesting  witness  of  this  untaught  wisdom 
is  to  be  found  in  the  attitude  of  Jesus  to  the  world 
of  nature.  It  would  be  misleading  to  speak  of  his 
mind  as  scientific,  for  there  is  in  him  no  trace  of 
the  special  discipline  in  which  students  of  science 
are  trained.  His  attitude  toward  nature,  however, 
is  the  prerequisite  of  the  scientific  mind.  Nature 
in  every  phase  and  form  is  his  instructor,  his  com- 
panion, his  consolation,  and  each  incident  of  nature 
is  observed  by  him  with  sympathetic  insight  and 
keen  delight.  He  is  a  poet  rather  than  a  natural- 
ist ;  but  with  him,  as  with  all  great  interpreters 
of  nature,  poetic  insight  gives  significance  to  the 
simplest  facts.  The  hen  and  her  chickens,  the 
gnat  in  the  cup,  the  camel  in  the  narrow  street, 
the  fig-tree  and  its  fruit,  the  fishermen  sorting 
their  catch,  —  all  these  and  many  other  of  the 
slightest  incidents  which  meet  his  observant  eye 
become  eloquent  with  the  great  message  of  the 
Kingdom. 

The  contrast  at  this  point  between  the  mind  of 
Jesus  and  the  mind  of  Paul  is  striking.  In  the 
Epistles  of  Paul  one  finds  hardly  an  allusion  to  the 
familiar  and  homely  aspects  of  the  world  of  nature. 
We  hear  the  distant  sound  of  cosmic  tragedies, 
the  groaning  and  travailing  of  creation ;  but  of  the 
birds  and  lilies,  the  seed  and  harvest,  the  lake  and 
the  fish,  the  vines  and  the  cattle,  Paul  takes  no 
account.  He  is  a  man  of  the  city.  His  figures  of 
speech  are  of  the  market-place,  the  athletic  con- 
tests, the  military  career.     The  mind  of  Jesus,  on 


THE    CHARACTER   OF   JESUS    CHRIST  6 1 

the  other  hand,  is  most  at  home  in  the  country. 
When  he  seeks  the  companionship  of  God  in 
prayer,  he  goes,  not  into  his  closet,  but  into  the 
comforting  and  quickening  solitude  of  the  hills. 
Each  process  of  nature,  the  growth  of  the  grain, 
the  working  of  the  leaven,  the  blossoming  of  the 
trees,  the  flight  of  the  birds,  is  observed  by  him  with 
an  accuracy  which  never  falters  and  is  reported 
with  a  precision  which  gives  us,  as  has  been  said, 
"  a  compact,  coherent,  living  world,  which  we  can 
rearticulate,  revivify,  and  visualize."  1  From  the 
day  when  Jesus  pointed  to  the  lilies  and  the  crops, 
the  mountain  and  the  lake,  as  symbols  of  the  King- 
dom, the  messages  of  nature  have  been,  for  mill- 
ions of  minds,  spoken  in  his  words  and  interpreted 
in  his  spirit.     As  Shelley  wrote  of  Keats :  — 

"  He  is  made  one  with  Nature.     There  is  heard 
His  voice  in  all  her  names.  .  .  . 
He  is  a  presence  to  be  felt  and  known, 
In  darkness  and  in  light,  from  herb  and  stone." 

1  Fairbairn,  "  Philosophy  of  the  Christian  Religion,"  1902,  pp. 
383  ff.  The  whole  paragraph,  concerning  the  responsiveness  of  the 
mind  of  Jesus  to  the  suggestions  of  nature,  is  singularly  beautiful. 
So  also,  H.  Holtzmann,  "  Lehrbuch  der  Neutest.  Theol.,"  1897, 
s.  1 12 :  "  One  could  not  thus  have  spoken  whose  soul  had  first  awak- 
ened in  the  narrow  alleys  of  Jerusalem  and  been  brought  too  soon 
into  contact  with  the  spirit  of  the  Schools."  H.  Weinel,  in  the 
"  Festgruss  fur  Bernhard  Stade,"  1900  ("  Die  Bildersprache  Jesu  in 
ihrer  Bedeutung  fur  die  Erforschung  seines  inneren  Lebens"), 
s.  57 :  "  This  use  of  figures  is  the  best  evidence  for  the  genuineness 
of  the  tradition  concerning  Jesus.  For  since  the  Christian  reli- 
gion through  its  great  apostle  became  a  faith  of  the  lower  classes 


62      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

A  further  and  still  more  striking  evidence  of 
this  intellectual  mastery  was  a  certain  lightness 
of  touch  which  Jesus  often  employed  in  contro- 
versy, and  which  sometimes  approaches  the  play 
of  humor,  and  sometimes  the  thrust  of  irony.  His 
enemies  attack  him  with  bludgeons,  and  he  de- 
fends himself  with  a  rapier.  No  test  of  mastery  is 
more  complete  than  this  capacity  to  make  of  play- 
fulness a  weapon  of  reasoning.  The  method  of 
Jesus  pierces  through  the  subtlety  and  obscurity  of 
his  opponents  with  such  refinement  and  dexterity 
that  the  assailant  sometimes  hardly  knows  that  he 
is  hit.1  Instead  of  a  direct  reply,  the  immediate 
question  is  parried  and  turned  aside,  and  the  mo- 
tive which  lies  behind  it  is  laid  bare.  People  come 
to  him  with  an  inquiry  about  the  division  of  prop- 
in  Greek  cities,  and  since  —  on  the  other  hand  —  it  was  soon 
touched  in  Palestine  with  Pharisaism,  these  figures  and  parables, 
in  their  original  freshness  and  homeliness,  could  not  have  been  a 
later  invention."  So,  W.  M.  Ramsay,  "  The  Education  of  Christ," 
1902,  Ch.  I,  "  On  a  Mountain  Top  ";  Renan,  tr.  Allen,  1896,  pp.  122 
ff.  :  "The  region  round  about  Jerusalem  is  perhaps  the  dreari- 
est country  in  the  world;  Galilee,  on  the  contrary,  was  extremely 
verdant,  well  shaded,  smiling.  ...  In  no  country  in  the  world  do 
the  mountains  spread  themselves  out  with  more  harmony  or  inspire 
loftier  thoughts.  .  .  .  The  entire  history  of  infant  Christianity  has 
in  this  way  become  a  delightful  pastoral." 

1  So,  Renan,  "Life  of  Jesus,"  tr.  Allen,  1896,  p.  143:  "Some- 
times a  wonderful  keenness,  like  what  we  call  wit,  put  his  aphorisms 
in  sharp  relief.  ...  *  Let  me  pull  out  the  mote  out  of  thine  eye; 
and,  behold,  a  beam  is  in  thine  own  eye.'  "  So,  Jacoby,  "Neutest. 
Ethik,"  s.  138.  The  trait  has  been  traced  with  perhaps  excessive 
ingenuity  by  G.  W.  Buckley,  "  The  Wit  and  Wisdom  of  Jesus," 
1901. 


THE    CHARACTER    OF   JESUS    CHRIST  63 

erty,  and  Jesus  at  first  seems  to  decline  jurisdic- 
tion in  the  matter.  "  Who  made  me,"  he  says,  "  a 
judge  or  a  divider  over  you?"  Then,  however, 
looking  round  at  the  faces  of  the  crowd  who  are 
seeking  his  guarantee  for  their  greed,  he  pene- 
trates to  the  thought  which  the  economic  problem 
has  disguised,  and  answers,  not  their  inquiry,  but 
their  hearts :  "  I  say  unto  you  all,  keep  yourselves 
from  covetousness."  His  disciples  ask  for  the  re- 
ward of  their  loyalty :  "  Lo,  we  have  left  all  and 
have  followed  thee  "  ;  and  Jesus  answers  :  "  Ye 
shall  receive  an  hundredfold,  houses  and  brethren, 
sisters  and  mothers,  and  children  and  lands  "  ;  and 
then,  as  if  with  a  playful  sense  of  the  little  that  all 
this  tells  them  of  that  which  is  to  happen,  he 
goes  on  :  "  Yes,  houses  and  lands  indeed,  with  per- 
secutions." He  opens  the  Book  in  the  synagogue, 
and  with  the  familiarity  of  one  versed  in  the 
Scriptures,  selects  that  passage  which  is  fulfilled 
by  him  :  "  He  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  the 
acceptable  year  of  the  Lord";  but  while  the  minds 
of  his  hearers  run  on  into  the  next  phrase  of  the 
Prophet's  saying,  Jesus  abruptly  closes  the  Book 
in  the  middle  of  a  sentence,  and  gives  it  back  to 
the  attendant,  leaving  it  for  the  congregation  to 
perceive  that  he  declines  to  appropriate  the  an- 
cient threat :  "  And  the  day  of  vengeance  of  our 
God." 1 

Here   is  intellectual  insight  matching   spiritual 

1  This  incident  is  noted  by  S.  M.  Crothers  in  a  "  Sermon  on  the 
Simplification  of  Life,"  1901. 


64      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

authority.  This  is  no  recluse  or  peasant  or  pas- 
sive saint,  but  an  intellectual  as  well  as  moral 
leader,  who  may  be  rejected  indeed,  but  who 
cannot  be  despised.  The  picture  of  the  his- 
toric Jesus  which  would  reproduce  this  type  of 
character,  and  which  is  still  left  for  Christian  art 
to  paint,  is  not  of  the  pallid  sufferer,  stricken  by 
the  sins  of  the  world,  but  of  the  wise,  grave  Mas- 
ter, whom  to  meet  was  to  reverence,  if  not  to  obey. 
Tempted  he  may  be,  but  his  are  the  temptations 
which  come  to  power.  Confronted  by  learning  he 
must  be,  but  the  weapons  of  scholarship  are  his 
also.  Thwarted  by  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  he 
will  be,  but  he  remains  a  king  in  the  empire  of  the 
truth.  Suffer  he  must,  but  it  is  the  suffering  of 
the  strong.  He  dies  as  if  defeated,  but  his  power 
asserts  itself  commandingly  even  when  he  is  gone  ; 
and  the  very  memory  of  it  brings  to  his  cause  men 
who  could  resist  his  teaching.  Nicodemus,  the 
scholar,  returns  to  care  for  the  body  of  Jesus ;  and 
Judas,  the  betrayer,  hangs  himself  for  shame. 

This  central  quality  of  moral  and  intellectual 
power  becomes  still  more  impressive  when  one 
proceeds  to  notice  the  habit  of  life  and  way  of 
conduct  which  are  its  natural  expressions.  There 
are  two  ways  in  which  the  conduct  of  Jesus  dis- 
closes a  character  whose  dominant  note  is  strength, 
and  both  of  these  habits  of  life  increase  the  pathos 
and  impressiveness  of  his  character.  The  first  is 
the  prodigality  of  his  sympathy ;  the  second  is  his 
solitude  of  soul. 


THE   CHARACTER   OF   JESUS   CHRIST  6$ 

The  first  mark  of  power  is  its  self-impartation. 
It  gives  itself  lavishly  because  there  is  so  much 
to  give.  It  feels  no  need  of  thrift.  This  is  what 
impresses  one  in  the  conduct  of  Jesus.  He  is  ex- 
travagant and  unthrifty  in  his  teaching.  On  one 
occasion  only  does  he  seem  to  gather  an  audience 
about  him  and  address  to  them  any  formal  an- 
nouncement of  his  mission.  For  the  most  part  he 
lavishes  his  teaching  on  a  few,  and  sometimes 
charges  even  these  to  tell  no  man  what  he  has 
taught.  He  takes  three  friends  apart  from  their 
companions  and  shows  them  his  glory.  His  para- 
bles are  flung  out  into  the  world  with  little  care 
for  their  interpretation.  Those  who  have  ears  to 
hear  may  hear  them ;  but  many  shall  hear  and  not 
understand.  His  favorite  symbolism  is  that  of  the 
sower's  work,  with  its  broad,  free  sweep  of  arm  and 
its  widely  scattered  seed.  What  matter  was  it  if 
much  seed  be  wasted,  if  that  which  falls  on  good 
ground  has  such  reproductive  power  ?  There  is 
the  same  prodigality  in  his  relation  with  the  diverse 
types  of  people  who  came  to  him.  It  is  often  asked 
whether  Jesus  should  be  classified  with  reformers 
or  with  working-men,  with  the  proletariat  or  the 
poor.  The  fact  is,  however,  that  the  ordinary 
social  classifications  are  inapplicable  to  him.  He 
is  equally  at  home  with  the  most  varied  types.  He 
moves  with  the  same  sense  of  familiarity  among 
rich  and  poor,  learned  and  ignorant,  the  happy  and 
the  sad. 

What  does  this  range  of  sympathy,  this  prodi- 


66      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

gality  of  distribution,  mean  ?  It  has  been  some- 
times regarded  as  the  sheer  manifestation  of  an 
appreciative  and  responsive  mind.  This  is  the 
trait  which  has  encouraged  the  aesthetic  interpre- 
tation of  the  character  of  Jesus.  This  lavish  offer- 
ing is,  it  is  said,  a  mark  of  his  delight  in  life.  But 
delight  in  life  is  robbed  of  its  significance  when  it 
has  no  background  of  rational  justification.  Sym- 
pathy to  be  effective  must  be  the  expression  of 
power.  To  give,  one  must  have.  To  give  one's 
life  a  ransom  for  many  is  of  no  avail  if  the  ransom 
be  insufficient.  To  say  that  the  Son  of  Man  comes 
not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister,  is  to 
utter  no  great  truth,  unless  the  Son  of  Man  has  the 
capacity  for  ministering.  To  dig  a  channel  for  the 
water-power  of  one's  mill  is  no  wise  investment  if 
the  stream  has  run  low.  The  sympathy  of  Jesus 
is  the  channel  through  which  his  power  flows,  and 
the  abundance  of  the  stream  testifies  to  the  reserve 
of  power  at  the  source. 

The  second  mark  of  the  conduct  of  Jesus  is  his 
spiritual  solitude.  Give  himself  as  he  may  to 
others  in  lavish  word  and  deed,  there  remains 
within  the  circle  of  these  relationships  a  sphere 
of  isolation  and  reserve.  Eager  as  he  is  to  com- 
municate his  message,  there  are  aspects  of  it  which, 
he  is  forced  to  see,  are  incommunicable,  so  that  his 
language  has  at  times  a  note  of  helplessness.  Men 
see,  but  they  do  not  perceive ;  they  hear,  but  they 
do  not  understand.  "  No  man  knoweth  the  Son,  but 
the  Father ;  neither  knoweth  any  man  the  Father, 


THE    CHARACTER    OF   JESUS    CHRIST  67 

save  the  Son." 1  In  the  fourth  Gospel  this  sense 
of  solitude  is  expressed  with  solemn  reiteration. 
"  I  have  yet  many  things  to  say  unto  you,  but  ye 
cannot  bear  them  now."2  "It  is  expedient  for 
you  that  I  go  away :  for  if  I  go  not  away,  the  Com- 
forter will  not  come  unto  you."3  Behind  the  re- 
gion of  communication,  Jesus  recognizes  in  the  life 
of  the  spirit  a  realm  of  reticence,  where  the  heart 
knows  its  own  secret  and  the  life  must  make  its 
way  alone.  Instead  of  intruding,  as  many  a  teacher 
has  done,  into  the  solitude  of  personality,  Jesus 
says  :  "  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled.  ...  If  it 
were  not  so,  I  would  have  told  you."4  He 
respects  the  reserve  of  others,  as  he  maintains 
his  own.  It  is  the  confident  silence  which  is  the 
assurance  of  love. 

"  I  count  that  friendship  little  worth," 

says  a  Christian  poet, 

"  Which  has  not  many  things  untold, 
Sweet  longings,  that  no  words  can  hold, 
And  passion-secrets,  waiting  birth.1'5 

The  reserve  of  Jesus  is  the  background  and  the 
support  of  his  sympathy.  The  throng  that  presses 
about  him  seems  to  drain  his  strength,  and  he 
seeks  the  solitude  of  the  hills  or  of  the  lake  to 
recover  poise  and  peace.  Here  is  the  meaning  of 
those  passive  virtues  which  appear  to  give  the  note 

1  Matt.  xi.  27.  *  John  xiv.  I,  2. 

2  John  xvi.  12.  6  Henry  van  Dyke,  "The  Builders." 

3  John  xvi.  7. 


68      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

of  asceticism  to  the  Gospels.  Meekness,  patience, 
forbearance,  silence,  —  these  are  not  the  signs  of 
mere  self-mortification,  they  are  the  signs  of  power 
in  reserve.  They  are  the  marks  of  one  who  can 
afford  to  wait,  who  expects  to  suffer,  who  need  not 
contend ;  and  all  this,  not  because  he  is  simply  meek 
and  lowly,  but  because  he  is  also  strong  and  calm. 
A  touching  evidence  of  this  sense  of  solitude 
is  offered  by  the  relation  of  Jesus  to  his  family. 
Christian  art  has  here  again  misled  the  sentiment 
of  the  devout,  and  has  pictured  the  mother  of 
Jesus  as  continuously  aware  of  his  profoundest 
hopes,  from  the  time  of  his  boyhood,  when  she 
"  pondered  these  things  in  her  heart,"  to  the  time 
of  the  Cross,  when  she  stood  near  by,  leaning  on 
the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved.  The  fact  is,  how- 
ever, that  in  many  glimpses  of  the  domestic  relations 
of  Jesus  we  see  him  separated  from  an  undiscern- 
ing,  if  not  an  alienated,  home.  When  his  parents 
find  their  boy  in  the  Temple,  they  keep  his  sayings 
indeed  in  their  hearts,  but  they  do  not  open  their 
minds  to  those  sayings.  On  the  contrary,  it  is 
written  that  "they  understood  not  the  saying 
which  he  spake  unto  them."  Even  when  his  teach- 
ing had  gained  many  other  followers,  his  own  kin 
had  no  ears  for  his  message.  What  infinite  pathos 
is  in  that  scene  at  Capernaum,  when  the  people 
crowd  upon  him  so  that  he  and  his  friends  cannot 
find  time  to  eat,  and  his  mother  and  his  brethren 
cannot  "  come  at  him  for  the  press  "  !  They  come, 
it  is  plain,  to  take  him  from  the  dangers  which  be- 


THE    CHARACTER   OF   JESUS    CHRIST  69 

set  him.  Perhaps  they  see  the  political  peril  that 
threatens  him  ;  perhaps  they  lament  his  break  with 
the  sacred  law ;  perhaps  they  even  doubt  his  san- 
ity. At  any  rate,  they  come,  not  to  listen,  but  to 
deter,  and  Jesus  is  smitten  with  the  poignant  reali- 
zation that  a  man's  foes  are  of  his  own  household. 
If  he  is  to  go  on,  it  is  to  be  alone.  Those  who 
should  know  him  best  are  the  last  to  comprehend 
him.  With  a  look  of  profound  sorrow,  yet  of  un- 
deterred resolution,  he  turns  from  those  who  are 
dearest  to  him  and  gives  himself  to  that  larger  sym- 
pathy, which  is  at  the  same  time  personal  solitude. 
"  And  he  looked  round  on  them  which  sat  about 
him  and  said  :  '  Behold  my  mother  and  my  brother ; 
for  whosoever  shall  do  the  will  of  God,  the  same  is 
my  mother  and  my  brother  and  my  sister.'  " 

Here,  indeed,  is  the  pathos  of  the  character  of 
Jesus  ;  yet  here  also  we  approach  the  source  of  his 
strength.  It  was  in  this  detachment  of  nature,  this 
isolation  of  the  inner  life,  that  Jesus  found  his  com- 
munion with  the  life  of  God.  At  this  point  his 
ethics  melt  into  his  religion.  The  crowd  press 
round  him  and  he  serves  them  gladly,  and  then  it 
seems  as  if  his  nature  demanded  solitude  for  the  re- 
freshment of  his  faith.  The  tide  of  the  spirit  ebbs 
from  him  in  the  throng,  and  when  he  goes  apart 
he  is  least  alone,  because  the  Father  is  with  him. 
Thus,  from  utterance  to  silence,  from  giving  to 
receiving,  from  society  to  solitude,  the  rhythm  of  his 
nature  moves;  and  the  power  which  is  spent  in 
service  is  renewed  in  isolation.     He  is  able  to  bear 


70      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

the  crosses  of  others  because  he  bears  his  own. 
He  can  be  of  use  to  men  because  he  can  do 
without  men.  He  is  ethically  effective  because  he 
is  spiritually  free.  He  is  able  to  save  because  he 
is  strong  to  suffer.  His  sympathy  and  his  solitude 
are  both  alike  the  instruments  of  his  strength. 

How,  then,  shall  one  approach  the  type  of  char- 
acter which  is  derived  from  him?  It  must  be 
approached,  not  as  a  survival  of  monastic  or  senti- 
mental ideals,  inapplicable  to  the  conditions  of 
the  modern  world,  but  as  a  form  of  power,  express- 
ing itself  in  sympathy  and  fortifying  itself  in  soli- 
tude. Its  evidence  is  its  effectiveness.  It  is  able 
to  serve  the  world,  as  an  unstinted  river  flows 
down  among  the  utilities  of  life  because  it  is  re- 
plenished from  the  eternal  hills.  It  has  its  abun- 
dance and  its  reserves,  its  stream  of  service  and  its 
peace  in  solitude ;  and  the  power  which  moves  the 
busy  wheels  of  the  life  of  man  is  fed  from  the 
high  places  of  the  life  of  God. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE   ROOTS   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

We  turn  from  the  Teacher  to  the  teaching.  If 
the  character  of  Jesus  Christ  was,  in  any  degree, 
such  as  has  been  indicated,  it  must  have  stamped 
itself  upon  his  message,  and  have  prescribed  the 
moral  type  which  should  reproduce  the  spirit  of  his 
life.  The  creation  of  such  a  type  was  his  funda- 
mental desire.  The  Christian  character  was  his 
chosen  instrument  for  the  establishing  of  the  King- 
dom of  God. 

What,  then,  is  the  nature  of  the  character  which 
thus  proceeds  from  the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ  ? 
From  what  roots  does  its  growth  begin,  and  into 
what  foliage  does  its  growth  expand  ?  What  were 
the  moral  traits  which  Jesus  most  immediately  wel- 
comed, and  the  moral  defects  which  he  most  un- 
qualifiedly condemned  ?  What  was  his  hierarchy 
of  ethical  judgments,  his  classification  of  the  su- 
preme virtues  and  of  the  nethermost  sins?  By 
what  steps  of  growth,  according  to  his  teaching, 
does  the  good  life  expand,  from  root  to  flower 
and  from  flower  to  fruit  ?  What  are  the  enemies 
without  and  the  weaknesses  within  which  threaten 
its  vitality?     Is  the  moral  type  which  represents 

7i 


72      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

his  influence  fit  to  survive  among  the  conditions  of 
the  modern  world  ? 

These  questions  appear  to  lead  one  directly  to  the 
most  obvious  aspect  of  the  Gospels.  Jesus  was  a 
teacher.  More  than  forty  times  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment he  is  thus  addressed.  The  immediate  subject 
of  his  teaching  is  equally  unmistakable.  It  is  con- 
duct, life,  practical  morality,  character.  Other 
aspects  of  his  message,  indeed,  lead  one  beyond 
the  sphere  of  ethics;  but  his  first  teaching  is  of 
duty,  conscience,  humanity,  love,  the  conduct  of 
life.  "Whosoever  heareth  these  sayings  of  mine, 
and  doeth  them,  I  will  liken  him  unto  a  wise  man, 
which  built  his  house  upon  a  rock."1  "Come,  ye 
blessed  of  my  Father;  .  .  .  inasmuch  as  ye  have 
done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my  brethren, 
ye  have  done  it  unto  me."2  If,  therefore,  Jesus, 
the  Teacher,  is  primarily  a  teacher  of  character,  it 
would  seem  as  if  nothing  could  be  simpler  than  to 
determine  what  that  character  is  which  he  desires, 
and  how  it  comes  to  be. 

When,  however,  one  turns  to  this  elementary 
inquiry,  he  is  at  once  confronted  by  two  uses  of  the 
New  Testament  which  gravely  obscure  this  ethi- 
cal teaching.  They  are  the  two  chief  heresies  of 
Biblical  interpretation.  The  first  is  the  heresy  of 
the  casuist ;  the  second  is  the  heresy  of  the  dog- 
matist. 

The  casuist  turns  to  the  Gospels  to  find  ethical 
prescriptions  applicable  to  specific  ills.     He  looks 

1  Matt.  vii.  24.  2  Matt.  xxv.  34,  40. 


ROOTS   OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER  73 

for  a  code  of  maxims.  Conduct  presents  itself  to 
him  as  a  piecemeal,  incidental,  fragmentary  series 
of  decisions.  God  says,  Thou  shalt,  and,  Thou  shalt 
not,  as  each  problem  of  duty  stands  in  the  way. 
The  Gospels,  however,  when  thus  approached,  are 
among  the  most  baffling  of  documents.  They  deal, 
it  is  true,  with  cases  of  conduct,  and  record  specific 
moral  judgments ;  but  these  detached  instructions 
give,  in  themselves,  no  consistent  law  of  life.  On 
the  contrary,  they  are  often  perplexing  and  some- 
times contradictory  in  their  teaching,  and  the  casu- 
ist, having  determined  his  conduct  by  one  precept, 
is  surprised  to  find  himself  reproved  by  another 
teaching  from  the  same  lips.  "  Resist  not  evil," 
says  Jesus,  and  the  casuist  erects  this  precept  into 
the  essence  of  the  Gospels,1  only  to  find  the  teach- 
ing of  non-resistance  refuted  by  Jesus  himself  as 
he  scourges  the  traders  from  the  Temple  or  says  to 
his  friends :  u  I  came  not  to  send  peace,  but  a 
sword  " ;  "He  that  hath  no  sword,  let  him  sell  his 
garment,  and  buy  one."  2  "  Swear  not  at  all,"  says 
Jesus  again,  and  the  casuist  proceeds  to  prohibit 

1  Tolstoi,  "  My  Confession,"  tr.  1887,  p.  190:  "Whoever  shall 
not  utterly  renounce  all  the  cares  and  advantages  of  the  life  of  the 
body,  cannot  fulfil  the  will  of  the  Father."  "  My  Religion,"  tr. 
1887,  p.  94:  "This  simple,  clear,  and  practical  fourth  command- 
ment (Matt.  i.  33-37),  '  Never  resent  evil  by  force,  never  return 
violence  for  violence ;  if  any  one  beat  you,  bear  it ;  if  any  one 
would  deprive  you  of  anything,  yield  to  his  wishes  ;  if  any  one  would 
force  you  to  labor,  labor  ;  if  any  one  would  take  any  of  your  prop- 
erty, abandon  it  at  his  demand.'  " 

2  Matt.  x.  34;  Luke  xxii.  36. 


74      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

judicial  oaths  as  an  offence  to  Christ,  only  to  find 
Jesus  himself,  when  "  adjured  by  the  living  God," 
ready  to  make  solemn  reply.1  "  I  will  give  unto 
this  last,  even  as  unto  thee,"  2  says  Jesus,  and  the 
casuist  justifies  by  this  teaching  a  doctrine  of  social 
equality ;  but  no  sooner  does  he  turn  a  few  more 
pages  of  the  Gospels  than  he  hears  Jesus  say: 
"  For  he  that  hath  to  him  shall  be  given :  and  he 
that  hath  not,  from  him  shall  be  taken  even  that 
which  he  hath,"  as  though  nothing  were  more 
obvious  than  the  truth  of  essential  inequality.3 

These  paradoxes  in  which  Christian  casuistry 
finds  itself  involved  indicate  that  the  Gospels  should 
be  approached  in  quite  another  frame  of  mind. 
They  are  not  collections  of  maxims,  or  utterances 
of  oracles,  or  text-books  of  rules  to  be  learned  by 
rote.  They  are,  on  the  contrary,  the  simple  record 
of  unstudied  discourse  as  it  was  applied  to  varied 
incidents  and  needs.  It  is  the  occasionalism  of  the 
teaching  which  gives  it  the  appearance  of  para- 
dox. Jesus  is  not  weighing  his  utterances  as  though 
the  world  were  listening;  he  is  dealing  with  the 
immediate  problem  of  the  individual  soul.  "What 
he  taught,"  said  Robert  Louis  Stevenson,  "  was  not 
a  code  of  rules,  but  a  loving  spirit ;  not  truths,  but  a 
spirit  of  truth  ;  not  views,  but  a  view."  The  task  of 
the  modern  student  is  not  to  detach  his  aphorisms 
from  their  circumstances  and  give  to  each  a  uni- 
versal validity,  but  to  discern  through  these  occa- 

1  Matt.  xxvi.  63.  2  Matt.  xx.  14. 

8  Mark  iv.  25. 


ROOTS   OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER  75 

sional  utterances  the  principles  which  control  the 
Master's  mind.  It  is  easy  enough,  as  has  been 
wittily  said,  to  die  for  an  idea,  if  you  have  but 
one  idea.  It  is  easy  enough,  one  might  add,  to 
define  the  Christian  character,  if  you  reduce  that 
character  to  a  single  virtue.  The  casuist's  trouble 
begins  when  he  is  confronted  by  the  richness  and 
many-sidedness  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  Idolatry 
of  a  single  saying  may  be  as  misdirected  as  indiffer- 
ence to  it.  The  nature  of  the  Christian  character 
is  not  comprehended  by  an  incident  or  an  aphorism, 
though  the  incident  or  aphorism  may  disclose  some 
aspect  of  the  teacher's  comprehensive  plan.  The 
prescription  of  a  physician  in  a  given  case  may  not 
be  a  remedy  which  is  universally  applicable,  but 
the  physician's  dealing  with  the  single  case  may 
disclose  the  prevailing  habit  of  his  mind.  Here 
is  the  difference  between  the  teaching  of  Jesus  and 
that  of  the  Pharisees.  They  were  expounding  pre- 
cepts of  casuistry;  Jesus  was  teaching  principles 
of  morality.  Instead  of  washings  and  tithings,  he 
set  forth  the  comprehensive  commandments  upon 
which  the  whole  law  and  prophets  hung.  Christian 
casuistry  tabulates  the  precepts  of  the  Gospels ; 
Christian  ethics  seeks  the  mind  of  Christ.1 

1  Herrmann,  "Die  sittl.  "Weisungen  Jesu,"  1904,  ss.  48,  65  :  "The 
most  common  and  most  pernicious  misconception  of  the  interpre- 
tation of  these  sayings  is  their  acceptance  as  invariable  laws.  .  .  . 
Such  an  interpretation  is  possible  for  those  only  who  care  more 
for  his  words  than  for  himself.  .  .  .  The  teachings  of  Jesus  are  to 
be  accepted,  not  as  exhibitions  of  an  arbitrary  power,  or  flashes  of 
inspiration,  but  as  rays  of  light  from  his  consciousness.  They  are 
not  cords  to  bind  us,  but  signs  to  point  out  the  way  to  liberty." 


76      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

On  the  other  hand  is  the  heresy  —  or  more  accu- 
rately, perhaps,  the  orthodoxy  —  of  the  dogmatist. 
To  this  habit  of  mind  the  Gospels  offer,  first  of  all, 
a  body  of  doctrine,  and  the  Christian  character  is  a 
consequence  of  the  Christian  creed.  "Give  me," 
a  distinguished  theologian  has  remarked,  "  the  In- 
carnation and  Resurrection  of  Christ,  then  Sin, 
the  Atonement  and  Justification  follow.  ...  In 
the  defence  of  Supernatural  Christianity  every- 
thing is  at  stake.  .  .  .  The  great  battle  of  the 
twentieth  century  ...  is  a  struggle  between  a 
Dogmatic  Christianity,  on  the  one  hand,  and  an 
out-and-out  naturalistic  philosophy,  on  the  other."1 

Much  there  certainly  is,  both  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment and  in  religious  experience,  which  justifies 
this  view  of  the  Christian  religion.  Righteousness, 
says  Paul,  "  shall  be  imputed,  if  we  believe  on  him 
that  raised  up  Jesus  our  Lord  from  the  dead."3 
Is  it  not  rash,  however,  to  maintain  that  in  the 
defence  of  Dogmatic  Christianity  "everything  is 
at  stake "  ?  Much,  no  doubt,  that  is  precious  is 
involved;  but  is  there  no  path  leading  to  the 
Christian  life  except  through  consent  to  Chris- 
tian dogma  ?  Does  not  this  demand  for  doctrinal 
assurance  as  antecedent  to  the  sense  of  sin  re- 
verse the  natural  order  of  Christian  experience, 
and  bar  the  door  of  discipleship  to  many  who 
are  trying  to  find  their  way  to  Jesus  Christ? 
A   different   spiritual    chronology   meets    one    in 

1  F.  L.  Patton,  "  Princeton  Theological  Review,"  January,  1904, 
pp.  135,  136.  2  Rom.  iv.  24. 


ROOTS   OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER  fj 

the  first  three  Gospels.  To  the  Apostle  Paul, 
as  in  the  prevailing  tradition  of  the  later  Church, 
intellectual  apprehension  of  Christ  was  antece- 
dent to  obedience;  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
himself,  obedience  is,  as  a  rule,  the  path  to  intel- 
lectual apprehension.  Jesus  accepts  as  a  disciple 
many  a  hearer  whose  confession  of  faith  would 
satisfy  few  modern  churches;  he  commends  the 
centurion's  faith  as  greater  than  that  of  Israel ;  he 
says  to  responsive  and  receptive  lives :  "  Great  is 
thy  faith  "  ;  "  Thy  faith  hath  saved  thee  " ;  even 
though  these  lives  are  uninstructed  in  dogma  and 
untried  in  loyalty.  In  short,  his  teaching  is  not  of 
a  logic  of  doctrine,  but  of  a  way  of  life.  "  Follow 
me,"  he  says,  "  Take  up  thy  cross,  and  follow  me  "  ; 
and  along  the  way  of  the  Christian  character  may 
be  discovered  the  articles  of  the  Christian  creed. 
The  dogmatist  overloads  the  teaching  of  Jesus  with 
theology,  while  the  casuist  strips  that  teaching 
of  its  comprehensiveness  and  wealth.  Casuistry 
obscures  the  Gospels  with  legalism ;  dogmatism 
complicates  the  Gospels  with  intellectualism.  One 
reduces  Christian  ethics  to  a  meagre  conformity; 
the  other  involves  Christian  ethics  in  a  superfluous 
complexity.  Between  the  two  stands  the  teaching  of 
Jesus,  —  not  casuistical  or  theological,  but  vital,  per- 
sonal, creative,  —  the  recognition  and  development 
of  the  capacity  to  follow  him,  the  creation  of  the 
Christian  character. 

How  does  he  approach  this  ethical  enterprise? 
What  was  the  process  of  moral  growth  which  he 


yS      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

desired  to  quicken  ?  From  what  root  of  spiritual 
vitality  does  it  proceed  ?  What  is  to  be  its  issue 
for  oneself  and  for  the  world  ?  These  are  ques- 
tions, not  of  Christian  casuistry  or  of  Christian 
dogmatics,  but  of  what  a  distinguished  scholar  has 
called  "  psychological  hermeneutics,"  1  —  the  dis- 
covery of  the  spiritual  intention  of  the  Teacher 
through  the  varied  expressions  of  his  word  and 
work.  It  is  as  though  one  were  permitted  to  pass 
through  the  antechambers  of  an  artist's  home, 
where  his  finished  products  are  set,  and  to  enter 
an  inner  room,  where  he  may  watch  the  master 
busy  with  his  creative  task.  With  a  peculiar  sense 
of  reverent  intimacy  one  passes  by  many  other 
aspects  of  the  life  of  Jesus  which  have  detained  the 
attention  of  the  world,  and  enters  that  closet  of  the 
spirit  where  the  Master  may  be  seen  in  the  very 
act  of  moulding  men  into  the  character  which  he 
desires. 

What  then,  we  ask  once  more,  are  the  elements 
and  principles  of  the  Christian  character?  The 
answer  to  this  question  may  perhaps  be  best  ap- 
proached if  one  begins  with  the  opposite  inquiry. 
What  was  the  kind  of  character  which  received 
from  Jesus  special  condemnation  and  rebuke,  as 
though  he  felt  it  to  be  peculiarly  impervious  to  his 

1  "  Psychologisch  orientierte  Hermeneutik,"  Julicher,  "  Gleich- 
nisreden  Jesu,"  I,  73,  cited  by  Weinel  (op.  cit.),  ss.  53,  54:  The 
succeeding  pages  are  an  admirable  instance  of  the  method  of 
"  discovering,  through  the  ideas  behind  the  words,  the  spiritual 
experiences  behind  both." 


ROOTS    OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER  79 

teaching  and  almost  incapable  of  being  moulded 
into  his  plan  ?  Here  at  once  we  meet  one  of  the 
most  surprising  traits  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  and 
find  ourselves  called  to  reconsider  our  common 
classification  of  virtues  and  sins.  Jesus  regards 
with  extraordinary  leniency  some  of  the  faults 
which  the  world  most  unqualifiedly  condemns,  and 
on  the  other  hand  judges  with  surprising  severity 
much  which  the  world  lightly  forgives  or  mistakes 
for  excellence.  He  is  infinitely  patient  with  the 
precipitate  Peter ;  he  cannot  bring  himself  to 
despair  of  the  treacherous  Judas;  he  is  a  friend 
of  those  whom  the  world  calls  sinners ;  he  accepts 
those  whom  the  world  calls  lost. 

What  is  it,  then,  in  the  hierarchy  of  morals  which 
seems  to  him  more  disheartening  and  irremediable 
than  either  cowardice  or  treachery  or  passionate 
sin?  Strangely  enough,  it  is  the  sin  of  self-suffi- 
ciency, the  disease  of  self-importance,  the  spiritual 
satiety  of  the  Pharisaic  mind.  This  is  what  stirs 
Jesus  to  unmeasured  and  pitiless  rebuke.  "Thy  sins 
are  forgiven  thee,"  he  says  to  a  sinning  woman ; 
"Woe  unto  you,  hypocrites,"  he  says,  on  the 
other  hand,  to  the  bewildered  representatives  of 
orthodox  belief.  What  does  this  reversal  of  judg- 
ment mean  ?  It  means  that,  to  Jesus,  character 
is  not  an  attainment,  but  a  growth.  Under  any 
test  of  attainment  it  was  monstrous  to  condemn 
a  Pharisee  and  pardon  a  Publican.  It  is  not  sur- 
prising that  to  many  listeners  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  seemed  to  reverse  all  reasonable  standards 


80      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

of  respectability  and  sin.  Jesus,  however,  is  con- 
templating a  higher  righteousness,  a  new  ideal, 
a  perfected  character;  and  he  observes  that  the 
obstruction  of  his  purpose  which  is  most  insur- 
mountable is  not  experience  of  sin,  but  incapacity 
for  growth.  The  Pharisees  had  been  attacked  by 
ethical  atrophy.  They  were  unteachable,  unsus- 
ceptible, impenetrable,  self-satisfied.  The  German 
agitator  Lassalle  said  of  the  working-men  whom 
he  desired  to  inflame  with  a  sense  of  wrong,  that 
the  chief  cause  of  his  exasperation  with  them  was 
their  inability  to  appreciate  how  much  they  lacked, 
their  "  Bedurfnisslosigkeit"  the  absence  of  the 
sense  of  need.  Something  of  this  same  sense 
of  helplessness  seems  to  have  fallen  upon  the 
mind  of  Jesus  as  he  saw  how  much  the  Pharisees 
needed  and  how  unconscious  of  need  they  were. 
They  did  not  want  to  learn;  their  minds  were 
closed ;  their  self-sufficiency  was  an  absolute  bar- 
rier to  the  message  of  Jesus.  "  There  is  no  cure," 
said  Frederick  Robertson,  "  for  ossification  of  the 
heart."  "  Publicans  and  harlots,"  said  Jesus,  "  shall 
enter  into  the  kingdom  before  you." 

This  point  of  departure  in  the  ethics  of  Jesus 
may  be  further  indicated  by  observing  the  estimate 
which  his  teaching  sets  on  childhood.  The  Chris- 
tian world  has  become  so  familiar  with  the  scene 
where  Jesus  sets  a  child  in  the  midst  and  says, 
H  Except  ye  turn  and  become  as  little  children,  ye 
shall  in  no  wise  enter  the  Kingdom  of  heaven,"  1 

1  Matt,  xviii.  3,  xix.  14;  Mark  x.  15  ;  Luke  xviii.  17;  compare 
Ps.  cxxxi.  2. 


ROOTS    OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER  8 1 

that  it  hardly  considers  how  unprecedented  a  teach- 
ing is  here  given.  It  is  in  reality  a  new  note  in  the 
history  of  ethics.  Greek  philosophy  takes  no  seri- 
ous account  of  children  except  to  train  them  for 
maturity.  Children  did  not  nestle  in  the  arms  of 
Plato  or  Aristotle  as  they  held  their  grave  dis- 
course. Such  a  saying  as  "  Whosoever  therefore 
shall  humble  himself  as  this  little  child,  the  same 
is  greatest,"  x  would  have  seemed  in  Athens  or 
Rome  sheer  fanaticism.  It  might  even  now  be 
questioned  whether  it  is  a  reasonable  doctrine 
which  makes  the  child  the  teacher  of  the  man. 
Is  a  child,  even  though  guileless,  nearer  to  the 
Kingdom  of  God  than  a  ripened  and  disciplined 
character  ?  Would  not  Jesus  have  been  more  of  a 
philosopher  and  less  of  a  sentimentalist  if  he  had 
set  among  his  disciples  some  clear-eyed  youth 
or  some  wise,  calm  man,  and  said :  "  Except 
ye  become  as  one  of  these,  ye  cannot  enter  the 
Kingdom  "  ? 

The  real  nature  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  it 
must  be  answered,  is  precisely  indicated  by  the 
phrase  which  he  employs.  He  does  not  say  that 
the  childlike  spirit  is  inherently  better  than  the 
spirit  of  the  man.  He  does  not  promise  that  it 
shall  possess  or  govern  the  Kingdom.  He  affirms 
only  that  it  is  the  condition  of  entering  the  King- 
dom. It  is  not  that  the  child  is  better  than  the 
man,  but  that  the  child  stands  at  the  gate  of  the 
ideal  and  takes  the  first  step  toward  the  Christian 

1  Matt,  xviii.  4. 


82      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

character.  Docility,  receptivity,  open-mindedness, 
the  eager,  listening  spirit  of  the  little  child  —  this 
is  the  polar  opposite  of  the  unteachable,  satiated, 
closed  heart  of  the  Pharisee,  and  as  the  latter 
blocks  the  way  to  the  kingdom,  so  the  former 
opens  its  door.  The  teaching  of  Jesus  does  not 
end  with  the  praise  of  childhood,  or  confound 
childlikeness  with  childishness.  Better  things 
than  childhood  has  to  offer  are  to  be  gained 
through  the  discipline  and  stress  of  life,  yet 
entrance  to  the  Kingdom  is  attained  by  no  other 
door  than  the  unspoiled,  natural,  spontaneous 
spirit  of  the  child,  and  many  a  sophisticated  and 
unteachable  life  will  find  with  a  shock  of  surprise 
that  it  has  lost  the  key.1 

Other  aspects  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  may  ap- 
pear to  some  minds  antiquated  or  temporary  or  pro- 
vincial, but  this  preliminary  demand  has  peculiar 
significance  for  the  conditions  of  the  modern  world. 
Pharisaism  in  its  grosser  forms  of  hypocrisy  and 
affectation  is  certainly  not  a  characteristic  sin  of  the 
present  age.  Candor  and  contempt  of  disguise  are 
prevailing  virtues.      Yet  the  underlying  state  of 

1  The  same  attitude  of  mind  commends  itself  to  scientific  ob- 
servers. See  the  noble  letter  of  Huxley  to  Charles  Kingsley, 
"  Life  and  Letters,"  1900,  I,  p.  219 :  "  Science  seems  to  me  to 
teach  in  the  highest  and  strongest  manner  the  great  truth  which 
is  embodied  in  the  Christian  conception  of  entire  surrender  to 
the  will  of  God.  Sit  down  before  the  fact  as  a  little  child,  be 
prepared  to  give  up  every  preconceived  notion,  follow  humbly 
wherever  and  to  whatever  end  nature  leads,  or  you  shall  learn 
nothing.  ...  I  have  only  begun  to  learn  content  and  peace  of 
mind  since  I  have  resolved  at  all  risks  to  do  this." 


ROOTS   OF   THE    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER  83 

mind  in  which  Jesus  found  the  first  obstruction  to 
his  purpose  is  still  conspicuous  in  great  numbers 
of  prosperous  and  respectable  lives.  It  is  the 
condition  of  spiritual  satiety.  Circumstances  have 
been  so  propitious,  social  traditions  so  sufficient, 
and  moral  inheritances  so  ample,  that  many  per- 
sons are  now  living  on  a  kind  of  left-over  morality, 
as  they  are  living  on  bequeathed  estates,  and  arrive 
at  ethical  decisions  through  transmitted  momentum 
rather  than  through  personal  initiative.  These 
persons  cannot  be  classified  with  sinners.  Their 
instincts  make  for  refinement,  self-culture,  and 
physical  vigor.  They  maintain,  as  a  rule,  a  pas- 
sive conformity  to  conventional  ethics;  but  they 
have  lost  the  capacity  for  moral  enthusiasm,  for 
vigorous  decision,  for  spiritual  vision,  for  social 
hope. 

What  is  this  epidemic  disease  of  modern  civili- 
zation which  fastens  so  easily  on  many  of  the 
most  favored  lives  ?  It  is  what  the  Germans  call 
"  Verfettung"  —  the  overnourished  and  satiated 
condition  created  by  lack  of  moral  exercise.  It 
is  what  athletes  describe  as  staleness,  the  disease 
of  high  condition,  the  loss  of  moral  freshness,  the 
incapacity  to  respond  to  strain.  Precisely  this 
inertia  and  unresponsiveness  Jesus  observed  in 
the  respectable  Pharisees  and  contrasted  with  the 
teachableness  and  eagerness  of  the  little  child.  A 
large  part  of  what  is  called  modern  society  has 
forfeited  the  taste  for  simplicity  and  the  appetite 
for  righteousness,  which  are  conditions  of  moral 


84      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

health.  It  is  often  fancied  that  some  great  tran- 
sition in  science  or  philosophy  is  responsible  for 
this  neutrality  and  lassitude  of  mind.  The  fact 
is,  however,  that  spiritual  insensibility  is  not  an 
intellectual  but  a  moral  defect ;  not  a  philosophical 
development  but  an  ethical  reversion;  the  sheer 
indolence  and  satiety  of  a  loose  and  ungirt  habit 
of  life. 

Such,  then,  is  the  first  condition  of  the  Christian 
character.  Its  primary  quality  is  teachableness. 
It  is  unattainable  except  by  the  open  mind  and 
the  receptive  heart.  Two  men  go  up  to  the  Temple 
to  pray,  and  of  the  two  the  Pharisee  is  in  attain- 
ment the  better  man.  He  fasts,  gives  tithes,  and 
scorns  the  sins  of  the  Publican.  He  is,  however, 
satisfied  and  unteachable,  and  his  prayer  is  un- 
availing. The  other  is  a  self-confessed  but  peni- 
tent sinner,  and  there  is  to  Jesus  more  hope  in 
self-reproach  than  in  self-complacency.  Two  sons 
go  their  different  ways,  —  the  one  to  evil,  the  other 
to  self-regarding  virtue,  —  and  Jesus  does  not  teach 
that  the  prodigal  is  better  than  his  brother.  The 
contrast  is  between  satiated  virtue  and  the  conscious 
emptiness  of  sin.  Far  as  the  prodigal  has  wandered, 
he  has  not  lost  his  hunger  for  love;  near  to  the 
father  as  the  elder  brother  has  remained,  he  has 
remained  self-seeking ;  and  to  the  father's  ear  there 
is  more  hope  in  the  penitent  cry  :  "  I  am  not  worthy 
to  be  called  thy  son,"  than  in  the  unfilial  complaint: 
"These  many  years  have  I  served  thee  and  thou 
never  gavest  me  a  kid." 


ROOTS   OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER  85 

Character,  in  other  words,  is  marked,  not  by  its 
achievements,  but  by  its  desires.  It  is  an  unfold- 
ing process,  a  way  of  education,  a  moral  evolution, 
thwarted  by  self-sufficiency,  and  beginning  in  docil- 
ity and  love.  A  child  may  be  immature  in  morals 
as  he  is  in  form,  but  Jesus  looks  upon  the  child 
with  the  love  which  he  felt  for  all  budding  and 
ripening  things.  He  sees  the  far-off  Divine  event 
toward  which  this  moral  creation  moves.  The  im- 
perfect is  significant  as  a  prophesy  of  the  possible. 
The  ethics  of  Jesus  are  not  static,  but  dynamic. 
He  was  what  the  modern  world  would  call  an 
ethical  evolutionist.  Life  to  him  is  not  a  condition, 
but  a  mode  of  motion.  His  God  is  a  living  God  ; 
his  discipleship  is  a  living  process.  "  I  am  come 
that  they  may  have  life,  and  may  have  it  abun- 
dantly."1 

If  this  is  the  starting-point  of  the  ethics  of  Jesus, 
then  even  in  the  primary  demand  for  teachableness 
there  are  involved  two  other  principles  which 
characterize  and  illuminate  all  his  message.  One 
principle  considers  the  persons  to  be  made  into 
Christians,  the  other  principle  considers  the  way 
they  are  to  go.  One  represents  the  ethical  faith  of 
Jesus,  the  other  his  ethical  method.  The  first  is 
his  teaching  concerning  moral  growth,  the  second 

1  So,  Wellhausen,  "  Israel,  und  Jud.  Gesch.,"  5te  AufL,  1904, 
s.  384:  "Religion  ceases  to  be  the  property  of  experts  (eine  Do- 
mane  der  Virtuosen).  No  art  is  essential,  no  refinement  of  erudi- 
tion as  of  Rabbis,  but  a  simple  and  open  mind."  (The  whole 
chapter  abounds  in  insight  and  eloquence.) 


^    or  rnf 

flKMVCtiRITY 


86      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

is  his  teaching  concerning  moral  decision.  On  the 
one  hand  his  acceptance  of  the  tentative  beginnings 
of  character  indicates  his  confidence  in  moral 
growth.  He  does  not  expect  the  Christian  charac- 
ter to  bloom  in  a  day.  Having  found  a  receptive 
soul,  he  gives  it  time  to  grow.  His  loving  observa- 
tion of  the  ways  of  nature  teaches  him  the  analogy 
of  the  growth  of  the  spirit.  "  First  the  blade,"  he 
says,  "  then  the  ear,  after  that  the  full  corn  in  the 
ear."  1  Let  the  sower  find  good  ground  and  he  may 
wait  for  a  harvest.  Human  nature,  like  the  wheat- 
fields  of  Palestine,  is  a  soil  where  the  good  naturally 
grows.  It  has  potential  capacity.  The  forces  of 
the  universe  conspire  in  its  germination.  Even 
lives  which  seem  sterile  or  blighted  have  in  them 
the  latent  good.  Precisely  as  the  law  of  growth 
gives  significance  to  each  season,  however  harsh, 
and  to  each  storm,  however  violent,  so  the  law  of 
growth  in  the  Christian  character  sanctifies  child- 
hood, dignifies  experience,  and  forbids  despair. 
Where  there  is  growth  there  is  life,  and  where 
there  is  life  there  is  hope.  What  Jesus  has  in 
mind  is  not  primarily  the  condition  of  a  life,  but 
its  direction.  It  was  no  accident  which  gave  to 
the  Gospel  its  original  title  of  "the  Way."  Saul's 
persecution  was  directed  against  those  who  were 
"  of  this  Way  "  ; 2  and  Paul,  the  convert,  disputed 
with  those  "who  spake  evil  of  that  Way,"  so  that 
there  "arose  no  small  stir  concerning  the  Way."  3 

1  Mark  iv.  28.  2  Acts  ix.  2. 

*  Acts  xix.  9,  23,     So,  "  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles,"  tr. 


ROOTS    OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER  8? 

The  Christian  religion  is  a  movement,  an  organism, 
a  faith,  a  hope,  a  door,  a  way.  Let  a  life  be  but 
moving  along  the  way  of  Jesus,  and,  like  a  river, 
the  very  motion  is  a  cleansing  process,  and  instead 
of  the  malaria  of  the  stagnant  pool  there  is  the 
self-purification  of  the  flowing  stream. 

Here  we  meet  a  characteristic  of  the  moral  judg- 
ments of  Jesus  which  to  many  minds  has  seemed 
unjustified  and  extreme.  It  is  his  unconquerable 
faith  in  moral  capacity,  even  when  such  faith 
seemed  mistaken  or  misplaced.  The  third  Gospel 
narrates  that  when  the  infant  Jesus  was  brought 
by  his  parents  into  the  Temple,  a  devout  old  man 
took  the  child  in  his  arms  and  prophesied  that 
through  this  child  the  thoughts  of  many  hearts 
should  be  revealed.  That  is  precisely  what  has 
happened  to  multitudes  of  lives  through  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus.  He  has  revealed  to  them  the  thoughts 
of  their  own  hearts,  and  taught  them  that  their  best 
self  was  their  true  self.  When  the  prodigal  is 
stirred  to  repentance,  he  "  comes  to  himself."  He 
had  been  dead  and  is  alive  again.  He  had  lost 
himself  and  now  it  is  himself  whom  he  finds.  The 
faith  of  Jesus  in  men  produced  faith  in  themselves, 
and  they  discovered  within  themselves  thoughts 
and  motives  of  which  they  themselves  had  not 
dreamed.  It  was  faith  in  growth  which  justified 
this  faith  in  man.     People  who  seemed  to  them- 

Hitchcock  and  Brown,  1884,  p.  3:  "Two  ways  there  are,  one  of 
life  and  one  of  death,  but  there  is  a  great  difference  between  the 
two  ways." 


88      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

selves  fixed  in  some  condition  of  unworthiness  or 
dulness  or  sin  appeared,  to  Jesus,  as  children  in 
the  spiritual  life,  material  for  education,  seed  of  the 
Kingdom ;  and  his  communication  to  them  of  the 
capacity  for  growth  made  them  that  which  they 
desired  to  be. 

Two  dramatic  examples  illustrate  this  quality  in 
Jesus.  In  one  his  faith  was  justified,  in  the  other 
it  was  disappointed,  but  in  both  alike  the  princi- 
ple is  clear.  On  the  one  hand  is  his  apparently 
unjustified  faith  in  Peter.  What  could  be  less  de- 
scriptive of  that  unstable  character  than  to  say 
that  it  should  be  a  rock  on  which  the  Church  might 
be  built?  Was  ever  a  man  less  like  a  rock  and 
more  like  shifting  sand  than  Peter  ?  May  not  the 
group  of  disciples  have  fancied  that  the  saying  was 
but  the  playful  irony  of  the  Master  ?  Yet  Jesus 
discerns  in  the  man  a  capacity  for  leadership,  be- 
lieves in  Peter  even  when  Peter  does  not  believe  in 
himself,  steadies  his  impetuous  moods  of  devotion 
and  denial,  until  at  last  the  sand  of  his  character  is 
hardened  by  the  friction  of  experience  into  sand- 
stone, and  Peter  becomes  the  rock  which  his 
Master  prophesied  that   he  should   be. 

On  the  other  hand  is  the  still  more  perplexing 
relation  of  Jesus  with  Judas.  How  was  it  possible, 
one  asks  himself,  that  the  plot  of  betrayal  should 
ripen  without  detection  or  loss  of  faith  ?  We  seem 
placed  between  two  difficult  alternatives.  Either 
Jesus,  it  may  be  said,  was  not  discerning  enough  to 
discover  the  purpose  of  Judas,  or  else,  knowing  the 


ROOTS    OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER  89 

end,  he  still  permitted  a  traitor  to  sit  among  the 
disciples  and  break  with  them  the  paschal  bread. 
In  the  one  case  he  seems  to  be  an  unobservant 
leader ;  in  the  other  case  he  seems  to  be  playing  a 
merely  dramatic  part.  When,  however,  one  recalls 
the  faith  which  Jesus  had  in  potential  morality, 
neither  his  insight  nor  his  sincerity  seems  at  fault. 
The  truth  appears  to  be  that  Jesus  could  not  bring 
himself  to  surrender  Judas,  and  hoped  to  the  last 
that  faith  in  him  as  a  disciple  might  save  him  from 
the  fate  of  a  betrayer.  The  incidents  of  the  last 
days  when  thus  interpreted  are  unspeakably  touch- 
ing. Jesus  is  trying  by  force  of  confidence  to  hold 
the  disciple  from  his  shame.  This  faith  is  doomed 
to  disappointment,  yet  the  better  nature  in  which 
the  Master  trusted  overtakes  the  traitor  when  it  is 
too  late,  and  Judas  hangs  himself  in  self-reproach. 
It  is  startling  to  think  how  little  was  needed  to  re- 
duce the  character  of  Peter  to  that  of  Judas,  or  to 
lift  the  character  of  Judas  to  that  of  Peter.  Both 
were  traitors,  yet  in  neither  did  Jesus  find  it  possi- 
ble to  abandon  hope.  Both,  he  felt  sure,  still  pos- 
sessed the  capacity  for  moral  growth;  both  he  trusted 
with  a  limitless  patience  and  desire.  One  friend 
he  saved,  and  history  has  almost  forgotten  the  sin 
of  Peter  in  the  tradition  of  his  leadership.  The 
other  friend  Jesus  seemed  to  lose,  but  even  the 
story  of  the  betrayal  is  illuminated  by  the  inextin- 
guishable faith  of  Jesus  in  potential  repentance,  and 
by  the  fact  of  that  repentance  when  alas !  it  was 
too  late. 


90      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

*  Moral  education,  in  other  words,  begins,  accord- 
ing to  Jesus,  not  only  with  teachableness  in  the 
scholar,  but  with  the  Teacher's  faith  in  the  person 
taught.  Jesus  expects  much  of  men.  There  is 
little  evidence  that  his  chosen  friends  were  men 
of  extraordinary  capacities  or  opinions.  They  were 
plain  people,  with  simple  fears  and  hopes,  won- 
ders and  alarms,  yet  Jesus,  through  his  faith  in 
them,  makes  of  them  heroes  and  martyrs.1  "Ye 
are  the  light  of  the  world,"  he  says,  "ye  are 
the  salt  of  the  earth " ;  "Be  ye  therefore  per- 
fect " ;  and  their  natures,  easily  tempted  to  doubt 
or  self-seeking  or  denial,  respond  at  last  to  his 
great  faith. 

A  Christian  preacher,  addressing  young  men, 
said  not  long  ago  that,  just  as  children  were  at- 
tacked by  so  many  infantile  diseases  that  it  was  sur- 
prising to  see  them  grow  up,  so  youth  was  attacked 
by  so  many  sins  that  it  was  surprising  to  see  young 
men  grow  up  good.  Precisely  the  opposite  of  this 
teaching  is  that  of  Jesus.  It  is  natural,  he  would 
say,  for  young  men  to  be  good,  just  as  it  is  natural 
for  a  child  to  grow  up.  Hindrances  they  may  have, 
and  crises,  and  reversals,  and  some  seed  will  fall 
on  stony  and  thin  soil ;  but  in  ethics  as  in  nature 


1  Wernle  (op.  cit.),  s.  65  :  "  He  [Jesus]  enlarges  the  sphere  of 
moral  possibilities  as  a  scientific  discoverer  enlarges  the  sphere 
of  the  scientifically  possible.  .  .  .  The  disciples  of  Jesus  were 
originally  no  heroes  ;  the  whole  relation  of  Jesus  with  them,  up 
to  the  denial  by  Peter,  proves  this.  Yet  Jesus  made  of  them  a 
force  strong  enough  to  defy  the  world." 


ROOTS    OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER  9 1 

the  law  of  life  is  not  of  unproductiveness  and 
decay,  but  of  growth  and  fruition.  The  teacher 
is  to  expect  character,  as  the  sower  is  to  expect  a 
crop. 

This  is  the  first  lesson  of  Jesus,  the  Teacher, 
to  all  who  profess  to  teach.  Education  in  any 
form  demands,  first,  the  pupil's  teachableness, 
and,  secondly,  the  teacher's  faith.  No  teacher 
can  penetrate  the  closed  and  satiated  mind;  but 
the  most  open  mind  will  shrink  from  the  faithless 
teacher.  To  draw  out  the  latent  gift,  to  discover 
the  unexpected  capacity,  to  believe  in  the  pupil 
even  when  he  does  not  believe  in  himself  —  this 
is  the  test  of  the  teacher ;  and  to  have  this  faith 
justified  by  the  ripening  mind  and  will  —  this  is  the 
teacher's  great  reward.  Nor  is  this  test  to  be  ap- 
plied to  the  education  of  the  mind  alone.  The 
first  condition  of  all  effective  leadership  is  faith  in 
those  who  are  to  be  led.  Many  a  parent  forfeits, 
by  the  habit  of  distrust,  his  right  to  guide  his 
child;  many  a  leader  finds  his  followers  fail  him 
because  they  are  driven,  not  led.  The  good  shep- 
herd goes  before,  and  need  not  turn  his  head  to 
see  if  the  sheep  are  following.  They  know  his 
voice,  and  follow  because  he  is  sure  they  will. 
His  faith  in  them  kindles  their  loyalty  to  him. 
When  Washington  at  Valley  Forge  was  reviewing 
his  tattered  troops,  he  paused  before  one  feeble 
regiment  and  said,  "  Gentlemen,  I  have  great  con- 
fidence in  the  men  of  Connecticut,"  and  the  nar- 
rator says,    "When   I   heard   that,  I  clasped  my 


92      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

musket  to  my  breast  and  said,  'Let  them  come 


on 


I    M   1 


Such,  then,  are  the  two  great  assumptions  of  the 
teaching  of  Jesus.  The  Christian  character  begins 
in  moral  teachableness  and  is  developed  by  moral 
faith.  It  assumes  first,  humility,  and  secondly,  self- 
respect.  Here  is  a  union  of  traits  which  at  first 
sight  seems  difficult  to  maintain.  If  a  character 
is  blessed  with  docility  and  child-likeness,  is  it  not 
likely  to  forfeit  initiative  and  self-confidence  ?  If, 
on  the  contrary,  it  conceives  of  itself  as  infinitely 
precious,  is  it  not  likely  to  be  tainted  by  self-impor- 
tance and  conceit  ?  This  antinomy,  however,  lies  on 
the  surface  only  of  morality.  Cheap  morality  may 
discourage  effort ;  vulgar  piety  may  despise  teach- 
ableness ;  but  in  the  deeper  experiences  of  the 
spirit,  receptivity  and  activity  are  not  conflicting 
elements,  but  reciprocal  and  cooperative.  The 
more  one  perceives  how  little  he  has  done,  the 
more  the  unattained  persuades  him.  The  more 
sincerely  one  cries,  "  God  be  merciful  to  me  a 
sinner,"  the  more  justified  in  hope  he  goes  down  to 
his  house.  It  is  not  the  sense  of  ineffectiveness  that 
is  impenetrable ;  it  is  the  sense  of  sufficiency.     The 

1  So,  John  Watson,  "The  Mind  of  the  Master,"  1897,  PP-  23*> 
239 :  "  He  [Jesus]  moved  among  the  people  with  a  sanguine  ex- 
pectation ;  ever  demanding  achievements  of  the  most  unlikely, 
never  knowing  when  He  might  be  gladdened  by  a  response.  An 
unwavering  and  unbounded  faith  in  humanity  sustained  His  heart 
and  transformed  its  subjects.  .  .  .  With  everything  against  Him, 
Jesus  treated  men  as  sons  of  God,  and  His  optimism  has  had  its 
vindication." 


ROOTS    OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER  93 

child,  sorry  that  he  knows  little,  is  eager  to  know 
more.  The  poor  in  spirit  inherit  the  earth.  Self- 
effacement  is  the  beginning  of  self-respect.  There 
is  a  sorrow,  as  the  Apostle  Paul  said,  which  is  unto 
death ;  but  there  is  also  a  sorrow  which  is  unto  life. 
Here  is  the  root  of  that  quality  in  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus  which  has  often  been  described  as 
positiveness.  The  ethics  of  the  Old  Testament 
are  in  large  degree  negative  and  prohibitory ; 
Jesus  translates  their  "  Thou  shalt  not "  into  the 
"  Thou  shalt  "  of  the  Gospels.  His  judgments  con- 
cern themselves,  not  so  much  with  things  done 
which  should  not  have  been  done,  as  with  things 
left  undone  which  should  have  been  done.  Among 
the  sins  which  he  especially  condemns  are  unpro- 
ductiveness, unfruitfulness,  ineffectiveness,  indeci- 
sion. The  servant  is  rebuked,  not  because  he  has 
lost  his  talent,  but  because  he  has  not  used  it.  It 
seems  to  him  a  sufficient  defence  to  say :  "  Lo, 
there  thou  hast  that  is  thine,"  but  because  he  has 
not  put  his  money  to  interest  he  is  cast  into  dark- 
ness. The  Priest  and  the  Levite  do  no  positive 
harm  to  the  man  by  the  wayside,  but  their  sin  of 
omission  is  their  self-condemnation.  This  quality 
of  positiveness  of  the  ethics  of  Jesus  is  the  corol- 
lary of  his  doctrine  of  growth.  The  prohibitions 
which  leave  life  where  it  now  is,  are  supplanted 
by  the  summons  to  action  and  the  demand  for 
progress.  "  Take  up  thy  cross,"  says  Jesus,  not  to 
lean  on  it,  but  to  follow,  with  the  cross  on  the 
shoulder.    "  Come,  ye  blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit 


94      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

the  Kingdom  prepared,"  not  for  the  resigned,  the 
patient,  the  passive,  but  for  the  giver  of  food  to 
the  hungry  and  the  opener  of  eyes  to  the  blind. 
The  chief  contention  of  Jesus  was  not  with  sinners, 
but  with  the  negatively  good.  Pharisaic  ethics, 
the  code  of  prohibition,  seemed  to  him  the  chief 
obstruction  of  moral  growth.  One  might  obey  all 
these  precepts  of  abstinence  and  remain  an  un- 
profitable servant.  His  demand  is  not  merely  for  a 
good  life,  but  for  a  life  that  is  good  for  something ; 
teachable  that  at  last  it  may  itself  teach ;  growing 
that  at  last  it  may  be  fruitful.  First  the  grain,  he 
teaches,  then  the  ear  ;  but  both  for  the  sake  of  the 
corn  which  shall  feed  the  hungry.  It  is  not  the  virtue 
one  has  attained  or  the  things  one  does  not  do  which 
makes  one  a  Christian.  One  may  be  saved  by 
temperament  from  many  faults  which  degrade,  or 
saved  by  prudence  from  the  mistakes  of  the  pre- 
cipitate; and  this  illusion  of  sufficiency  may  lead 
him  with  all  sincerity  to  pray  :  "  I  thank  thee  that 
I  am  not  as  other  men  are"  ;  but  the  judgment  of 
Jesus  probes  this  illusory  judgment  with  its  positive 
test.  What  hast  thou  done  ?  it  asks.  What  gain 
has  God  from  his  investment  in  thy  soul;  what 
fruit  from  thy  sowing;  what  added  strength  or 
peace  or  courage,  through  the  loan  of  life  com- 
mitted to  thy  care ;  what  fidelity  as  of  the  faithful 
steward  ;  what  watchfulness  as  of  the  trusted 
porter;  what  integrity  as  of  the  righteous  judge? 
When  Mazzini  heard  a  man  described  as  good, 
he  asked,    "Whom  then  has  he  saved?"     It  is 


ROOTS    OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER  95 

the  question  of  Jesus.  The  Christian  character  is 
not  free  from  blunders  or  failures;  but  it  grows, 
through  its  blunders  and  failures,  toward  effective- 
ness, serviceableness,  merciful  judgment  of  others, 
humble  judgment  of  itself.  Its  end  is  not  re- 
straint, but  generosity.  It  asks  not,  "What  shall 
I  leave  undone?"  but  "What  shall  I  do?"  It 
mounts  on  stepping-stones  of  the  dead  self  to  higher 
things.  It  finds  itself  by  losing  itself ;  and  finally 
it  will  be  judged,  not  by  its  accomplishments,  but 
by  its  growth ;  not  by  its  achievements,  but  by  its 
ideals. 

"And  this  one  thought  of  hope  and  trust  comes  with    its 
healing  balm, 
As  here  I  lay  my  brow  in  dust  and  breathe  my  lowly  psalm ; 
That  not  for  heights  of  victory  won,  but  those  I  tried  to  gain, 
Will  come  my  gracious  Lord's  '  Well  done,'  and  sweet  effac- 
ing rain." 

If,  however,  the  roots  of  the  Christian  character 
begin  in  teachableness  and  are  persuaded  to  their 
growth  by  faith,  what  is  the  form  which  this  growth 
assumes  as  it  emerges  into  the  air  and  light  ?  What 
is  the  first  expression  of  the  Christian  character, 
the  point  where,  as  it  were,  it  breaks  through  the 
soil  of  consciousness  and  rises  into  the  stalk  of  the 
conduct  of  life?  What  is  the  specific  organ  of 
moral  growth,  the  significant  factor  of  moral  expe- 
rience ?  At  this  point  we  are  confronted  by  the 
various  psychologies  of  religion,  enumerating  the 
possible  forms  which  the  spiritual  life  may  assume. 
Is  religious  experience  primarily  expressed  through 


g6      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

the  reason  or  the  emotions  or  the  will?  Is  char- 
acter determined  chiefly  by  thought  or  feeling  or 
volition  ? 

The  attention  of  scholars  has  been  chiefly  di- 
rected to  the  place  of  the  first  two  elements  of 
experience.  Either  the  reason  or  the  emotions  has 
seemed  the  dominant  spiritual  force.  On  the  one 
hand,  the  distinction  of  human  life  is  discovered 
in  its  rational  nature.  The  truth  makes  men  free. 
"  To  place  the  essence  of  religion  in  feeling  is  self- 
contradictory,  for  a  religion  of  mere  feeling  would 
not  even  know  itself  to  be  religion."  "  The  spirit- 
ual life  of  man  .  .  .  rests  on  the  fact  that  reason 
or  self-consciousness  is  the  form  of  an  infinite  con- 
tent." a  On  the  other  hand,  it  has  been  urged  that 
a  spiritual  experience  which  is  universal  and  com- 
manding cannot  be  reserved  for  the  elect  few  who 
may  approach  it  by  the  way  of  reason.  "The 
measure  of  knowledge  is  not  the  measure  of  piety." 
At  one  point  only  does  the  spirit  of  the  individual 
have  free  access  to  the  spirit  of  the  Eternal,  as  an 
unobstructed  stream  empties  itself  into  the  sea. 
It  is  in  the  high  exaltation  of  the  emotional  life. 
"  Your  feeling,  in  so  far  as  it  expresses  the  uni- 
versal life  you  share,  is  your  religion."  2  Here  is 
the  only  way  of  revelation  open  to  all  comers. 
There  is  no  aristocracy  of  the  spirit.  If  the  life 
of  God  is  to  reach  the  life  of  man  without  discrimi- 
nation of  privilege  or  condition,  it  must  be  in  those 

1  John  Caird,  "  Philosophy  of  Religion,"  1880,  pp.  170,  291. 
3  Schleiermacher,  "Reden  ttber  die  Religion,"  1843,  ss.  180  ff. 


ROOTS   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER  97 

emotional  experiences  which  all  can  share.  "  The 
spirit  searcheth  all  things,  yea,  the  deep  things  of 
God." 

In  this  perennial  issue  of  philosophy  between 
the  rationalists  and  the  mystics,  there  is  much 
on  either  side  which  finds  itself  verified  by  the 
teaching  of  Jesus.  It  was  his  knowledge  of  God 
which  gave  him  tranquillity  and  power.  "  No  man," 
he  said,  "  knoweth  the  Father  save  the  Son,  and 
he  to  whomsoever  the  Son  will  reveal  him."1  It 
was,  again,  his  high  accessions  of  spiritual  emo- 
tion which  lifted  him  above  intellectual  doubt. 
11 1  thank  thee,  O  Father,  Lord  of  heaven  and 
earth,  because  thou  hast  hid  these  things  from  the 
wise  and  prudent,  and  hast  revealed  them  unto 
babes."  2  Yet,  however  rational  may  be  the  phi- 
losophy of  Jesus,  and  however  exalted  his  moods 
of  mystic  insight,  it  was  neither  to  the  reason 
nor  to  the  emotions  that  he  turned  for  the  initial 
dynamic  of  the  spiritual  life.  His  appeal  is  prima- 
rily to  the  third  function  of  spiritual  expression, 
the  will.  He  expects  from  men  a  moral  initia- 
tive. "  Follow  me,"  he  says.  "  Sell  all  that  thou 
hast,  and  follow  me.  Take  up  thy  cross  and 
follow  me.  Whosoever  shall  do  the  will  of  God, 
the  same  is  my  brother  and  sister  and  mother. 
Be  it  unto  thee  even  as  thou  wilt."  In  other 
words,  his  teaching  is  primarily  ethical.  What  he 
first  demands  is  not  verified  truth  or  exalted  emo- 
tions, but  moral  decision.      He  deals  with  many 

1  Matt.  xi.  27;   Luke.x.  22.  2  Matt.  xi.  25. 

H 


98      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

persons  whose  opinions  are  far  from  fixed  and 
whose  feelings  are  far  from  purified ;  but  Jesus 
takes  these  lives  just  as  they  are,  and  welcomes 
the  determination  of  the  will  as  the  test  of  dis- 
cipleship.  The  moral  decision  may  be  accom- 
panied by  a  clarifying  thought  or  by  an  emotional 
surprise,  or  by  both.  It  is  as  if  one  had  lost  his 
path  in  the  dark,  but,  summoning  his  will  to  try  the 
way  that  seemed  most  straight,  should  find  it  lead- 
ing quickly  to  a  well-known  road  and  the  lights 
of  home.  The  first  step  toward  safety  is  in  the 
decision  to  proceed.  The  will  takes  up  the  march, 
and  the  mind  and  heart  follow.  Among  the  ob- 
stacles to  the  spiritual  life  on  which  Jesus  prima- 
rily dwells  is  the  sin  of  indecision :  "  He  that  is 
not  with  me,  is  against  me.  He  that  gathereth 
not  with  me,  scattereth.  No  man  can  serve  two 
masters."  Neutrality  is  iniquity.  Pilate,  though 
he  finds  no  fault  with  Jesus,  is  responsible  for  his 
fate.  On  which  side?  asks  Jesus.  What  is  the 
direction  of  desire  ?  "  Seek  first  the  Kingdom  of 
God  and  His  righteousness,  and  all  these  things 
shall  be  added  unto  you."  The  Christian  charac- 
ter has  not,  indeed,  through  this  initial  decision 
reached  the  port  toward  which  it  moves;  but  it 
is,  as  it  were,  launched  for  its  voyage,  when  the 
blocks  that  held  it  are  struck  away  by  one  sharp 
impulse  of  the  will.1 

1  So,  Wernle  (op.  cit.),  ss.  50,  65 :  "  Jesus,  simply  because  he  is  a 
Jew,  is  far  removed  from  speculation  concerning  God.  .  .  .  But  it 
is  equally  true  that  Jesus  is  no  mystic,  and  demands  of  no  one  a 


ROOTS    OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER  99 

No  aspect  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  is  more  sig- 
nificant than  this  appeal  to  the  will.  It  is  not 
a  question  of  origins.  Psychology  may  still  with 
justice  urge  that  the  beginnings  of  the  religious 
life  must  be  sought,  either  in  the  primitive  specula- 
tions of  the  reason  or  in  the  primitive  agitations  of 

mystic  self-absorption  in  God.  .  .  .  The  teaching  of  Jesus  is  a 
summons  to  the  will,  the  faculty  of  free  decision.  .  .  .  He  doubts 
not  that  one  can  ;  his  question  is  whether  one  wills."  Modern 
psychology  has  arrived  at  a  similar  recognition  of  the  priority  of  the 
will  in  spiritual  growth.  Percy  Gardner,  "  A  Historic  View  of  the 
New  Testament,"  1901,  p.  37:  "In  the  nature  of  man  the  supreme 
element  is  will,  which  dominates  alike  feeling  and  thought"; 
p.  86 :  "  According  to  the  teaching  of  the  Founder  of  Christianity, 
the  will  of  God  is  revealed  to  men  in  two  ways  —  in  the  external 
and  visible  world  as  law,  in  the  moral  world  as  ideal.  .  .  .  The 
religious  view  of  the  will  is  set  forth  in  the  Gospels  as  it  is  taught 
nowhere  else."  Still  more  striking  is  the  evidence  of  spiritual  auto- 
biography. "I  resolved,"  wrote  John  Wesley  in  1725,  "to  devote 
all  my  life  to  God,  all  my  thoughts,  words,  and  actions,  being 
thoroughly  conscious  that  there  was  no  medium,  but  that  every 
part  of  my  life,  not  some  only,  must  be  a  sacrifice  either  to  God  or 
to  myself,  that  is,  in  effect,  the  devil."  "  I  have  been  for  the  last 
hour  on  the  seashore,"  wrote  Charles  Kingsley  on  his  twenty- 
second  birthday,  "  not  dreaming,  but  thinking  deeply  and  strongly, 
and  forming  determinations  which  are  to  affect  my  destiny  through 
time  and  eternity.  Before  the  sleeping  earth  and  the  sleeping  sea 
and  stars,  I  have  devoted  myself  to  God,  —  a  vow  never  (if  he 
gives  me  the  faith  I  pray  for)  to  be  recalled."  So,  Bushnell  (cited 
byW.  Gladden,  "Pioneers  of  Religious  Liberty  in  America,"  1903, 
p.  231)  :  "'Have  I  ever  consented  to  be,  and  am  I  really  now,  in 
the  right  ...  to  live  for  it,  to  make  any  sacrifice  it  will  cost  me,  — 
in  a  word,  to  be  in  wholly  right  intent,  and  have  no  mind  but  this 
forever?  '  This  was  Horace  Bushnell's  conversion.  He  has  found 
God.  .  .  .  The  ethical  test  will  be  applied,  then,  unflinchingly  to 
theology." 


IOO      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

the  emotions.  The  supremacy  of  the  will  marks, 
no  doubt,  a  later  stage  in  social  evolution,  a  late 
arrival  in  the  history  of  the  soul.  Moral  decision 
obviously  assumes  some  knowledge  of  the  objects 
of  choice,  and  some  feeling  of  attraction  or  repul- 
sion concerning  them.  This  confession,  however, 
is  precisely  what  gives  its  exceptional  character  to 
the  teaching  of  Jesus.  Its  primary  emphasis  is 
given  to  a  factor  of  experience  of  which  primitive 
religion  takes  scarcely  any  account.  He  is  not 
concerned  with  defining  a  philosophy  of  religion, 
but  with  communicating  a  practical  religion.  He 
is  dealing,  not  with  primitive  man,  but  with  devel- 
oped man,  and  touching  motives  of  the  spiritual 
life  which  are  not  effective  in  less  evolved  religions. 
The  origins  of  faith  may  be  discovered  in  imagina- 
tion and  wonder,  in  crude  cosmologies,  in  the  sense 
of  dependence,  in  emotions  of  hope  or  fear ;  but  a 
new  step  is  taken  by  the  teaching  of  Jesus  in  his 
summons  to  the  will.  The  Christian  religion,  as 
Kant  taught,  is  primarily  a  moral  religion.  It 
creates,  like  other  religions,  a  theology ;  it  feels, 
like  other  religions,  an  emotion ;  but  neither  the 
theologians  nor  the  mystics  touch  the  characteristic 
note  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  What  he  desires 
first  of  all  to  communicate  is  not  a  system  of 
doctrine  or  a  rush  of  feeling,  but  an  ethical  de- 
cision. Before  his  public  ministry  begins  he  with- 
draws from  human  companionship  and  faces  the 
special  temptations  of  conscious  power,  of  self- 
display,  and  of  worldly  glory,  which  threaten  him. 


ROOTS    OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER        IOI 

Once  and  for  all  he  fortifies  his  will  against  them, 
and  from  that  time  to  the  day  when  he  gives  back 
his  life  to  God,  saying,  "  Not  my  will,  but  thine, 
be  done,"  *  the  dominating  factor,  both  in  his  expe- 
rience and  his  teaching,  is  not  intellectual  achieve- 
ment or  emotional  exaltation,  but  ethical  decision. 
"  My  meat,"  says  the  fourth  Gospel,  "  is  to  do  the 
will  of  him  that  sent  me."  "  I  seek  not  mine  own 
will,  but  the  will  of  him  that  sent  me."2  The 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  concludes  with  the  accept- 
ance, not  of  those  who  confess  "  Lord,  Lord," 
but  of  those  who  "  do  the  will  of  my  Father."  3 
"  Whosoever  shall  do  the  will  of  God,"  says  Jesus, 
again,  "  the  same  is  my  brother,  and  my  sister,  and 
mother."4  First  obedience,  then  insight;  first  de- 
cision, then  precision  ;  first  the  following  of  Jesus, 
and  later  the  understanding  of  him,  —  such  is  the 
sequence  of  Christian  experience.  When  modern 
psychology  announces  that  "The  willing  depart- 
ment of  our  nature  .  .  .  dominates  both  the  con- 
ceiving department  and  the  feeling  department,"5 
what  is  this  but  a  reiteration  of  the  teaching  of  the 
fourth  Gospel,  "  He  that  willeth  to  do  the  will  shall 
know  of  the  doctrine  "  ?  Among  the  baffling  truths 
which  invite  and  defy  the  reason,  and  the  tides  of 
feeling  which  rise  only  to  fall,  the  beginnings  of 

1  Luke  xxii.  42.  8  Matt.  vii.  21. 

2  John  iv.  34,  v.  30.  4  Mark  iii.  35. 

6  William  James,  "The  Will  to  Believe,"  1897,  P-  Ir4-  So  also, 
p.  141:  "To  the  end  of  time  our  power  of  moral  and  volitional 
response  to  the  nature  of  things  will  be  the  deepest  organ  of  com- 
munication therewith  we  shall  ever  possess." 


102      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

Christian  experience  are,  according  to  the  teaching 
of  Jesus,  in  the  conversion  of  the  will. 
"  Our  wills  are  ours,  we  know  not  how, 
Our  wills  are  ours  to  make  them  thine." 

What  is  there  more  disheartening  in  the  history 
of  Christian  thought  than  the  meagre  recognition 
of  this  appeal  of  Jesus  to  the  will  ?  Systems  of 
theology  have  been  devised  in  which  every  virtue 
is  ascribed  to  God  except  that  of  simple  goodness, 
and  every  hope  offered  to  men  except  that  of 
moral  choice.  Creeds  have  been  confidently  pro- 
mulgated by  millions  as  expressing  the  essence  of 
the  Christian  faith,  which  one  might  utter  in  entire 
sincerity  without  committing  himself  to  personal 
holiness  or  ethical  decision.  It  is  not  surprising 
that  the  vulgar  estimate  of  the  Christian  character 
should  gladly  seize  on  this  defect,  and  fancy  that, 
to  the  follower  of  Jesus,  dogma  is  more  than  obedi- 
ence and  feeling  more  than  righteousness.  No 
single  cause,  perhaps,  has  done  so  much  to  alienate 
plain  minds  from  the  Christian  religion  as  this  di- 
vorce of  faith  from  morals.  Elsewhere  the  issues 
of  life  are  chiefly  determined  by  the  will ;  the  best 
law  in  other  affairs  is  the  law  of  conscience;  the 
highest  occupation  to  which  most  men  attain  is  the 
simple  effort  to  do  their  duty ;  and  if  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  gives  another  principle  of  conduct,  derived 
either  from  speculative  opinion  or  from  emotional 
excitement,  it  becomes  an  unreal  and  ineffective 
teaching  among  the  ordinary  problems  of  unsophis- 
ticated men. 


ROOTS    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER         103 

The  fact  is,  however,  that  Christian  disciple- 
ship  begins,  where  all  excellence  begins,  in  the 
dedication  of  the  will  to  goodness.  The  first 
demand  of  Jesus  is  not  for  orthodoxy  or  ecstasy, 
but  for  morality.  Seek  first  God's  Kingdom  and 
His  righteousness, — this  is  not  the  whole  of  the 
Christian  faith,  but  it  is  its  first  article.  The  first 
step  to  take  in  the  following  of  Jesus  is  the  resolu- 
tion to  be  good.  The  Israelite  without  guile  is  fit 
to  be  a  disciple.  Further  disclosures  of  truth  and 
further  accessions  of  feeling  lie  along  the  way  of 
the  Christian  character;  but  the  direction  of  its 
growth  is  determined  by  the  will.  The  reason  is 
like  the  sails  of  a  ship,  which  give  momentum  and 
lift ;  the  feelings  are  the  waves,  thrown  off  tumult- 
uously  on  either  side ;  but  the  rudder,  which  gives 
direction  and  control  to  life,  is  the  will. 

At  this  point,  however,  where  the  Christian  life 
hears  the  summons  to  the  will,  there  enters  a 
further  experience  which  gives  a  new  quality  of 
poignancy  and  pathos  to  the  story  of  the  Christian 
character.  It  is  that  experience  which  the  theolo- 
gians have  described  as  the  sense  of  sin.  The  will, 
invited  to  this  definite  decision,  becomes  aware  of 
habits  and  tendencies  whose  significance  has  been 
unrecognized  and  whose  mastery  has  been  un- 
checked. It  is  as  though  the  landscape  of  life 
were  blurred  in  outline  because  seen  through  an 
ill-adjusted  glass,  and  as  though  the  action  of  the 
will  threw  the  picture  of  life  into  focus,  so  that 
one  saw  the  perspective  of  conduct  with  a  new 


104      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

sense  of  vividness  and  precision.  As  the  horizon 
of  inclination  thus  takes  shape,  there  comes  to  the 
beholder  a  shock  of  surprise  and  shame.  Gross 
and  startling  shapes,  at  once  repelling  and  irre- 
sistible, grow  distinct  and  recognizable.  The 
action  of  the  will  discloses  an  area  of  conduct  in 
which  are  seen  volcanic  craters,  threatening  an 
outpouring  of  evil,  from  which  one  recoils  with 
horror  and  alarm.  Life,  which  had  appeared  a 
tranquil  and  orderly  growth,  seems  disordered, 
divided,  undermined. 

Such,  for  example,  was  the  first  effect  of  Chris- 
tian discipleship  in  the  experience  of  so  intelli- 
gent and  controlled  a  man  as  the  Apostle  Paul. 
He  had  learned  his  lesson  in  the  Law,  and  had 
conformed  to  its  ethical  demands.  "  I  had  not 
known  sin,"  he  says,  "  but  by  the  law.  .  .  .  Where- 
fore the  law  is  holy,  and  the  commandment  holy, 
and  just,  and  good."  *  Then  came  the  new  sum- 
mons to  the  Christian  character,  and  that  decision 
of  the  will  disclosed  to  Paul  a  chasm,  into  which 
he  had  not  before  looked,  and  which  separated 
his  Hebrew  legalism  from  his  Christian  ideal. 
"Sin,  taking  occasion  by  the  commandment, 
wrought  in  me  all  manner  of  concupiscence."  He 
becomes  aware  of  a  divided,  unreconciled,  volcanic 
life.  Conduct  comes  into  focus  before  him,  and 
the  foreground  of  this  scene  is  a  battle-ground 
where  two  forces  struggle  for  control.  "  The  good 
that  I  would,  I  do  not,  but  the  evil  that  I  would 

1  Rom.  vii.  7-12; 


ROOTS    OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER         105 

not,  that  I  do.  .  .  .  Oh,  wretched  man  that  I  am, 
who  shall  deliver  me  from  the  body  of  this  death?" 
What  shall  be  the  end  of  this  spiritual  struggle?  It 
cannot  be  ignored  or  pacified  or  arbitrated.  It  must 
be  fought  through.  The  antinomy  of  character  must 
be  overcome,  the  strength  of  sin  subdued,  until 
Paul  is  able  at  last  to  say  :  "  The  law  of  the  spirit  of 
life  in  Christ  Jesus  hath  made  me  free  from  the  law 
of  sin  and  death.  .  .  .  Thanks  be  to  God,  which 
giveth  us  the  victory  through  our  Lord,  Jesus 
Christ."  *  It  was  a  victory  well  won,  yet  through 
all  his  later  life  the  apostle  bore  the  scars  of  the 
battle,  and  through  all  his  teaching  runs  this  sense 
of  internecine  conflict  between  flesh  and  spirit, 
the  old  man  and  the  new.2 

When  one  turns  from  this  tragedy  of  the  con- 
science which  the  Epistles  of  Paul  describe,  to  the 
story  of  moral  experience  told  in  the  first  three 
Gospels,  the  climatic  change  which  has  already 
been  observed  is  again  immediately  felt.  The 
landscape  of  ethics  is  not  volcanic  and  appalling, 
but  sunny  and  inviting,  as  of  a  home  country  of 
the  will.  "  Jesus,"  a  distinguished  German  Evan- 
gelical has  remarked,  "  as  the  preacher  of  his 
Gospel  should  take  note,  has  spoken  little  of  sin 
in  general,  and  has  proposed  no  doctrine  of  it,  least 
of  all  a  doctrine  of  its  origin."3     If  it  were  true 

1  Rom.  viii.  2  ;   1  Cor.  xv.  57. 

2  Compare  Jacoby,  "Neutest.  Ethik,"  1 899,  ss.  266  ff.,  and  Stevens, 
"Theology  of  the  New  Testament,"  1899,  pp.  338  ff.,  with  notes. 

8  Beyschlag,  "  Neutest.  Theol.,"  tr.  Buchanan,  1895,  *>  9°» 


106      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

that  the  outlook  upon  life  of  the  "  twice-born  "  is 
"  the  wider  and  completer,"  or  that  "  the  '  heroic ' 
or  'solemn'  way  in  which  life  comes  to  them  is 
a  'higher  synthesis,'"1  then  the  character,  not 
of  Jesus,  but  of  Paul,  would  represent  the  moral 
ideal  of  Christians,  as  indeed  it  has  dominated 
much  of  Christian  teaching.  The  moral  ex- 
perience of  Jesus  is  not  a  revolution,  but  an 
evolution.  He  meets  his  own  temptations,  but  he 
meets  them  with  preparedness  and  tranquillity, 
and  repels  them  with  authority  and  contempt. 
"  Get  thee  hence,  Satan :  for  it  is  written,  Thou 
shalt  worship  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  him  only 
shalt  thou  serve."2  The  religion  of  Jesus  is 
not  that  of  the  "twice-born,"  but  that  of  the 
"  healthy-minded."  A  Christian  priest  who  holds 
an  infant  in  his  arms  and  says :  "  Forasmuch  as 
all  men  are  conceived  and  born  in  sin,  ...  we  be- 
seech Thee  .  .  .  that  this  child,  being  delivered 
from  Thy  wrath,  may  be  received  into  the  ark  of 
Christ's  Church,"  has  learned  his  lesson  from  the 
Psalmist8  or  from  the  Apostle  Paul4  rather  than 
from  him  who  said :  "  Suffer  little  children  to 
come  unto  me.  .  .  .  Whosoever  shall  not  receive 
the  kingdom  of  God  as  a  little  child,  he  shall  not 
enter  therein."6     Paul,  the  man  of  cities,  feels  a 

1  William  James,  "Varieties  of  Religious  Experience,"   1902, 
p.  488. 

2  Matt.  iv.  1-11. 

8  Ps.  li.  s  :  "  I  was  shapen  in  iniquity;  and  in  sin  did  my  mother 
conceive  me."  *Rom.  v.  9-12.  *  Mark  x.  15. 


ROOTS    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER        107 

kindred  turbulence  within  himself ;  Jesus,  the  in- 
terpreter of  nature,  feels  the  steady  persuasiveness 
of  the  sunshine  of  God,  and  grows  from  childhood, 
in  wisdom  and  stature  and  favor  with  God  and 
man. 

Beneath  these  differences,  however,  there  is  a 
deeper  sense  in  which  the  recognition  of  sin  is  as 
characteristic  of  Jesus  as  of  Paul.  The  decision 
of  the  will  which  Jesus  asks,  while  it  may  not  be  a 
dramatic  catastrophe,  is  none  the  less  a  deliberate 
turning  or  conversion  of  the  nature  toward  teach- 
ableness and  childlikeness.  "  Except  ye  turn," 
he  says,  "and  become  as  little  children,  ye  shall 
in  no  wise  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  Heaven."  * 
The  first  call  of  Jesus  is  the  call  to  repentance. 
"  From  that  time  forth  Jesus  began  to  preach  and 
to  say,  Repent,  for  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at 
hand  "  ; 2  and  his  disciples,  taught  by  him,  "  went 
out  and  preached  that  men  should  repent."  8 

Jesus  is  not  concerned  with  Sin,  as  an  abstraction. 
The  word,  as  used  not  less  than  forty  times  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  is  used  but  once  in  the 
Synoptic  Gospels.  Of  sins,  on  the  contrary,  and 
sinning,  and  sinful  men,  Jesus  has  much  to  say. 
He  traces  acts  to  their  source  in  the  will.  "  From 
within,  out  of  the  heart  of  men,  proceed  evil 
thoughts,  adulteries,  fornications,  murders,  thefts, 
covetousness,  wickedness,  deceit,  lasciviousness,  an 

1  Matt,  xviii.  3. 

2  Matt.  iv.  17,  xi.  21;  Mark  i.  15,  vi.  12;  Luke  xv.  7,  10; 
xxiv.  47.  ■  Mark  vi.  12. 


108      JESUS    CHRIST    AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

evil  eye,  blasphemy,  pride,  foolishness." 1  Jesus,  not 
less  imperatively  than  Paul,  sets  at  the  gates  of  the 
Kingdom  the  plain  demand  for  a  will  turned  toward 
righteousness,  and  a  conscience  sorry  for  its  specific 
sins.  By  what  road  one  shall  have  come  to  this 
gate,  and  through  what  storms  of  the  spirit  he 
shall  enter  it,  does  not  seem  to  Jesus  essential  to 
say.  The  fourth  Gospel,  in  sharp  contrast  with 
the  reticence  of  the  Synoptics,  reports  him  as  pre- 
scribing a  process  of  spiritual  agony  like  that  of 
physical  child-birth:  "Ye  must  be  born  again," 
says  Jesus  to  Nicodemus ;  and  Christian  teaching 
has  often  found  in  this  travail  of  the  conscience 
the  only  sign  that  the  Christian  character  was 
born.  To  Jesus,  however,  the  form  is  less  than 
the  fact.  Whenever  and  however  the  decision  is 
reached  and  the  will  is  turned,  there  the  same  victory 
which  Paul  describes,  of  the  spirit  over  the  flesh, 
the  new  man  over  the  old,  is  won.  Compromise  is 
as  far  from  the  calm  confidence  of  Jesus  as  from 
the  brave  wrestlings  of  Paul.  "  If  thy  right  hand 
offend  thee,  cut  it  off;  if  thine  eye  offend  thee, 
pluck  it  out."  To  Jesus  as  to  Paul  the  sense  of  a 
divided  will  is  the  essence  of  the  sense  of  sin.2 

1  Mark  vii.  20-23. 

2  Compare,  Jacoby  (op.  cit.),  ss.  56  ff.  :  "  It  is  noticeable  that  the 
judgment  of  Jesus  concerning  sin  is  without  severity.  It  is  a  sick- 
ness (Matt.  ix.  12,  xv.  14 ;  Mark  ii.  17  ;  Luke  v.  31),  a  folly  (Matt, 
v.  26  ;  Luke  vi.  49  ;  Matt.  xxv.  1-13).  .  .  .  Three  sins  are  empha- 
sized by  Jesus, — hypocrisy  (Matt,  xxiii.  13-31),  hardheartedness 
(Matt.  vi.  15;  xviii.  23-35),  and  worldliness  (Matt.  vi.  24; 
Luke  xvi.   13,  xii.  15-21,   xvi.    19-26).     Wernle,  "Die  Anfange 


ROOTS    OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER         IOO, 

At  what  point  in  experience,  it  may  be  asked, 
does  this  consciousness  of  conflict,  this  cry  of  the 
life  rent  by  two  forces,  occur  ?  Is  it  the  beginning 
of  religious  experience  or  is  it  the  corollary  of  an 
antecedent  act  of  will  ?  Is  it  a  sign  of  the  fall  of 
man  or  of  the  rise  of  man  ?  Is  it  a  witness  of 
death  or  of  birth  ?  It  has  often  been  regarded  as 
evidence  of  the  remoteness  of  human  life  from 
holiness,  the  mark  of  incapacity  for  moral  growth, 
the  witness  of  alienation  from  God.  To  Jesus,  on 
the  contrary,  and  indeed  to  Paul,  this  poignant 
appreciation  of  unworthiness  is  a  step,  not  toward 
the  darkness,  but  toward  the  light ;  a  mark,  not 
of  alienation  from  goodness,  but  of  the  emer- 
gence of  character  from  impenetrability  to  docility, 
from  the  self-satisfaction  of  the  Pharisee  to  the 
spirit  of  the  little  child.  The  sense  of  shame,  the 
confession  of  sin,  the  cry  for  forgiveness,  are  expe- 
riences which  meet  one,  not  on  his  way  down,  but 
on  his  way  up.  The  consciousness  of  sin  is  the 
prophecy  of  redemption.  The  publican  crying, 
"God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner,"  is  already  less 
a  sinner.     The  prodigal  saying,  "  I  am  not  worthy 

unserer  Religion,"  1901,  ss.  65ft.:  "The  Hebrew  sense  of  sin  .  .  . 
had  grown  to  a  form  of  disease.  .  .  .  Paul  is  its  great  interpreter. 
.  .  .  Jesus  banishes  this  morbid  sense  of  sin.  It  disappears  before 
him  like  the  mist  before  the  sun.  .  .  .  One  would  forfeit  his  right 
relation  to  God  if  he  refused  to  claim  God's  pardon.  .  .  .  Before 
this  faith  in  the  pardon  of  a  fatherly  God  vanish  the  beautifully  con- 
structed theories  of  sacrifice  and  substitution.  The  one  parable  of 
the  prodigal  son  disposes  of  them.  The  theology  of  sin,  with  sin 
itself,  is  left  behind  by  the  disciple  of  Jesus." 


110      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

to  be  called  thy  son,"  is  in  fact  claiming  his  sonship. 
The  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom. 
The  confession  of  sin  softens  the  soil  where  the 
seed  of  the  Kingdom  grows.  Jesus  is  the  friend 
of  sinners,  not  because  he  is  indifferent  to  sin  or 
because  he  confuses  evil  with  good,  but  because  the 
character  he  desires  to  establish  grows  out  of  self- 
humiliation  and  regret.  "  I  am  not  come,"  he  says 
in  lofty  satire,  "  to  call  the  righteous,  but  sinners  to 
repentance."  "  Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labor  and 
are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest."  x 

Such,  then,  are  the  roots  of  the  Christian  char- 
acter. A  teachable  life  is  stirred  to  faith  in  poten- 
tial goodness  and  responds  with  a  decision  of  the 
will.  Conscious  of  its  faults,  confessing  its  follies, 
chastened  by  its  new  ideals,  it  yet  feels  a  new  sense 
of  power,  and  turns  to  the  way  of  Jesus,  as  roots 
reach  up  into  the  light ;  and  as  it  thus  rises  above 
the  ground  of  consciousness,  it  is  surprised  to  find 
its  imperfect  beginnings  and  undeveloped  traits 
welcomed  by  the  Master  who  has  bidden  it  turn 
that  way.  It  is  the  surprise  which  the  first  blades 
of  spring  might  feel  as  they  ventured  forth  into 
the  cold  and  found  the  sunshine  waiting  for  them. 
These,  says  Jesus,  are  his  disciples,  — plain  people, 

1  So,  Stevens,  "Theology  of  the  New  Testament,"  1899,  p.  99: 
"  He  [Jesus]  saw  men  as  they  were.  ...  In  all  their  unfilial  in- 
difference and  disobedience  they  were  still,  in  his  view,  Sons  of  God, 
susceptible  to  the  appeal  of  a  Father's  love,  and  capable  both  of 
coming  to  themselves  —  their  true,  normal  selves  —  and  of  return- 
ing to  their  Father." 


ROOTS    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER         III 

with  half-formed  purposes  and  half-grown  charac- 
ters, likely  to  blunder,  quick  to  misinterpret,  still 
tempted  to  be  ambitious,  contentious,  hesitating, 
even  unfaithful ;  still  crying  :  "  Lord,  we  believe, 
help  thou  our  unbelief  "  ;  yet  welcomed  because 
turned  toward  the  light,  teachable  in  temper,  able 
to  grow,  converted  in  will,  finding  the  Way.  The 
roots  of  the  Christian  life,  fixed  in  the  soil  of 
moral  loyalty  and  unhindered  by  the  weeds  of 
hypocrisy,  unteachableness,  or  love  of  Mammon, 
normally  grow  toward  the  new  moral  type ;  and  the 
patient  Sower,  walking  his  furrow,  awaits  the  har- 
vest, when,  from  these  germinating  beginnings, 
under  the  sunshine  of  God,  will  some  day  issue  the 
ripened  fruit  of  the  Christian  character. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   GROWTH    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

The  beginnings  of  the  Christian  character  are 
in  the  childlike  temper,  the  teachable  nature,  the 
responsive  will.  Repentance  enters  where  self- 
sufficiency  may  not  tread.  Imperfections,  mistakes, 
blunders,  are  not,  to  Jesus,  insuperable  obstacles. 
What  he  welcomes  is  capacity  for  growth,  open- 
mindedness,  the  turning  of  the  will ;  and  finding 
these,  he  trusts  himself  and  his  cause  to  persons 
who  have  little  else  to  offer  him  except  the  will 
to  believe.  Up  through  the  consciousness  of  sin 
grows  the  Christian  experience,  until  from  the  ini- 
tial decision  of  the  will  there  issues  at  last  a  fair 
and  expanding  flower  of  character. 

What,  then,  is  the  form  which  this  growth  of  the 
Christian  character  assumes;  the  perfect  fruit  of 
this  ethical  process  ?  The  answer  to  this  question 
may  be  approached  by  recalling  three  great  words 
in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  which  together  express  the 
moral  ideal  of  the  Christian  character.  Of  these 
three  words  the  first  represents  especially  the  pre- 
vailing tone  of  ethical  teaching  in  the  first  three 
Gospels ;  the  second  recalls  to  us  the  more  intimate 
utterances  of  Jesus  himself ;  while  the  third,  though 
appearing    throughout  the   record,   is   peculiarly 

112 


^ 


GROWTH   OF   THE    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER       113 

characteristic  of  the  fourth  Gospel.  The  words 
seem  to  represent  distinct  moral  types.  One  sug- 
gests a  character  which  is  upright  but  severe ; 
another  a  character  which  is  gentle  but  soft;  the 
third  a  character  which  is  large  but  vague  ;  yet 
taken  together  these  three  words  form  a  logical 
sequence  of  ethical  definition,  and  each  in  turn 
contributes  to  the  growth  and  is  essential  to  the 
completeness  of  the  Christian  character. 

The  first  of  these  three  great  words  is  Righteous- 
ness. It  was  no  new  word  to  Hebrew  tradition, 
but  among  the  most  familiar  attributes  ascribed  to 
God,  and  the  most  essential  virtues  demanded  of 
man.  "  If  we  observe  to  do  all  these  command- 
ments," says  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy,  "it  shall 
be  our  righteousness  "  ; *  "  He  shall  judge  the  world 
with  righteousness,"  says  the  Book  of  Psalms.2 
"  God  that  is  holy  shall  be  sanctified  in  righteous- 
ness," says  Isaiah.3  When,  therefore,  those  who 
listened  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus  heard  him  repeat 
the  ancient  word  and  demand  of  his  followers  that 

1  Deut.  vi.  25. 

2  Ps.  xcvi.  13  ;  So,  lxxii.  2  ;  Is.  ix.  7,  xi.  2,  4,  xxxii.  I. 

8  Is.  v.  16.  Compare  Wendt,  "Teaching  of  Jesus,"  tr.  Wilson, 
1897,  I,  257:  "We  must  bear  in  mind  that,  in  the  Old  Testament 
phraseology,  which  governed  the  religions  language  of  the  Jews  in 
the  time  of  Jesus,  and  which  he  himself  adopted,  the  word  ■  righteous- 
ness '  had  a  wider  signification  than  that  of  the  Greek  word  '  Succuo- 
cvvf]\  .  .  .  Righteousness  in  this  sense  is  the  most  general 
designation  for  the  pious  God-pleasing  disposition  or  conduct  of 
men  which  is  opposed  to  sin." 


114      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

they  should  seek  first  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  His 
righteousness,  it  may  well  have  seemed  to  them  that 
his  message  was  a  simple  reiteration  of  the  Law 
and  the  Prophets  whose  teachings  they  knew  so  well. 
Jesus  is,  however,  in  fact  utilizing  this  large  and 
sacred  word  of  Hebrew  tradition  to  open  the  way 
along  a  path  which  was  familiar  to  his  hearers 
toward  an  end  which  they  had  failed  to  see.  His 
preaching  was,  indeed,  the  well-known  summons 
to  righteousness :  "  Blessed  are  they  that  hunger 
and  thirst  after  righteousness."  1  "  Then  shall  the 
righteous  shine  forth  as  the  sun  in  the  kingdom 
of  their  Father."  2  Is  this  righteousness,  however, 
that  same  trait  of  rectitude  and  conformity  of 
which  the  Law  took  account  ?  Yes,  Jesus  answers, 
it  is  essentially  that  which  they  of  old  time  have 
preached.  His  message  reproduces  the  original 
intention  of  the  Law.  "Go  ye  and  learn  what 
that  meaneth,"  he  cites  from  Hosea ;  "  I  desired 
mercy  and  not  sacrifice."3  "I  am  not  come  to 
destroy,  but  to  fulfil."  Yet  Righteousness,  as  the 
word  is  used  by  Jesus,  though  it  may  legitimately 
claim  the  ancient  title,  is  immediately  distinguished 
by  him  from  the  common  usage.  "  Except  your 
righteousness,"  he  says,  "shall  exceed  the  right- 
eousness of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  ye  shall 
in  no  case  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  4 
Righteousness  had  become  the  word  which  gave 
its   authority  to    the    external,   legal,   ceremonial 

1  Matt.  v.  6.  *  Hosea  vi.  6  ;  Matt.  ix.  13,  xii.  1 7. 

2  Matt.  xiii.  43.  *  Matt.  v.  20. 


GROWTH    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER       I  1 5 

conformity,  whose  yoke  lay  with  oppressive  weight 
upon  the  spirit  of  Israel.  "  Being  ignorant  of 
God's  righteousness,"  wrote  Paul,  "and  seeking 
to  establish  their  own  righteousness,  they  did  not 
subject  themselves  to  the  righteousness  of  God." * 
To  deliver  his  people  from  this  yoke,  to  recall 
them  from  the  righteousness  of  conformity  to  the 
righteousness  of  the  heart,  to  revive  the  spirit  of 
righteousness  within  the  forms  of  rectitude  —  that, 
indeed,  was  to  restore  the  original  definition  of 
righteousness,  yet  it  involved  such  revolutionary 
demands  as  to  be  a  practically  new  command.2 
Thus,  the  first  task  of  Jesus  is  to  legitimatize  the 
word  which  he  has  spiritualized.  He  is  not  come 
to  destroy,  yet  the  righteousness  which  the  Law 
appeared  to  teach  becomes  the  first  object  of  his 
attack.     His  first  controversy  is  with  conformity, 


1  Rom.  x.  3.  Compare  the  suggestive  view  of  J.  H.  Ropes 
(Journal  of  Bibl.  Lit.  1903,  p.  21 1),  "'Righteousness'  and  'The 
Righteousness  of  God'  in  the  Old  Testament  and  in  St.  Paul," 
p.  227 :  "  We  have  here  a  significant  and  instructive  illustration  of 
the  fact  that  Paul  the  Pharisee,  like  his  Master,  turned  back  from 
the  problems  and  dreams  of  his  contemporaries  to  the  words  of  the 
Prophets  of  Israel,  and  that  he  found  in  them  with  right  the  heralds 
of  the  Gospel  of  Christ." 

2  H.  Holtzmann,  " Neutest.  Theologie,"  1897,  s.  178:  "The  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount,  in  its  announcement  of  the  ethical  programme 
of  Jesus,  discriminates  between  '  justitia '  and  '  jus.'  Its  theme  is  that 
'  higher  righteousness,'  which  is  the  ideal  of  Jesus.  Righteousness 
is  conduct  regulated  by  the  standard  of  the  perfection  of  God.  .  .  . 
When  Jesus  commends  those  who  hunger  and  thirst  for  such  right- 
eousness, the  profoundest  desire  of  Israel,  its  thirst  for  the  Living 
God  (Ps.  xlii.  2),  gets  its  highest  ethical  expression." 


Il6      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

conventionalism,  externalism,  legalism.  Righteous- 
ness had  become,  as  a  distinguished  scholar  has 
said,  "  not  so  much  a  moral  quality  as  a  legal  sta- 
tus."1 Rectitude  by  statute  had  supplanted  right- 
eousness of  the  heart.  Was,  then,  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  conservative,  in  reviving  the  earlier  law,  or 
radical,  in  rejecting  the  popular  faith?  It  was 
both.  Throughout  the  Old  Testament  had  been 
heard  from  time  to  time  the  same  note  of  spiritual 
righteousness.  "  Man  looketh  on  the  outward 
appearance,  but  the  Lord  looketh  on  the  heart,"2 
says  the  Book  of  Samuel.  "  Search  me,  O  God, 
and  know  my  heart"  ;  "  Create  in  me  a  clean  heart, 
O  God,"  3  repeat  the  Psalms.  "  I,  the  Lord,  search 
the  heart,"  *  teach  the  Prophets.  To  this  thread  of 
spiritual  tradition  Jesus  attaches  himself.  Not  a 
jot  or  tittle  of  the  Law  is  to  be  disturbed  by  him. 
In  great  detail  and  by  a  series  of  instances  he 
illustrates  his  interpretation  of  the  ancient  word, 
the  righteousness  which  was  not  that  of  the 
Pharisees,  but  which  was  the  heart  of  the  Law 
and  Prophets.  "  Ye  have  heard  that  it  was  said  by 
them  of  old  time  .  .  .  but  I  say  unto  you."  5 

The  earlier  righteousness  had  concerned  itself 
with  overt  acts :  "  Thou  shalt  not  kill  " ;  the  new 


1  Robertson  Smith,  "The  Prophets  of  Israel,"  1882,  p.  71 : 
"  The  ideas  of  right  and  wrong  among  the  Hebrews  are  forensic 
ideas ;  that  is,  the  Hebrew  always  thinks  of  the  right  and  the  wrong 
as  if  they  were  to  be  settled  before  a  judge." 

2  1  Sam.  xvi.  7.  4  Jer.  xvii.  10. 

*  Ps.  cxxxix.  23, 1L  10.  *  Matt.  v.  21-28. 


GROWTH   OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER       1 17 

righteousness  searched  the  heart :  "  If  thou  .  .  . 
rememberest  that  thy  brother  hath  aught  against 
thee."  The  former  righteousness  took  account 
of  unchaste  conduct :  "  Thou  shalt  not  commit 
adultery " ;  the  new  righteousness  judged  the 
desire  behind  the  act :  "  Whosoever  looketh  on  a 
woman  to  lust  after  her  hath  committed  adultery 
with  her  already  in  his  heart."  The  old  righteous- 
ness taught  consistency  between  promise  and  per- 
formance :  "  Thou  shalt  not  forswear  thyself  " ; 
the  new  righteousness  supplanted  protestation  by 
moderation :  "  Swear  not  at  all."  It  was  the 
teaching  which  inspired  Newman  to  say :  — 

"  Prune  thou  thy  words,  thy  thoughts  control 
That  o'er  thee  swell  and  throng ; 
They  will  condense  within  thy  soul, 
And  turn  to  purpose  strong." 

Those  of  old  time  had  commended  justice, 
reciprocity,  an  eye  for  an  eye,  love  for  neighbors 
and  hate  for  enemies ;  the  new  righteousness  sup- 
planted this  equation  of  rights  by  generosity,  for- 
giveness, the  sacrifice  of  rights,  the  recognition 
of  the  unrequited  beneficence  of  God  :  "  Love  your 
enemies,  ...  do  good  to  them  that  hate  you"; 
"If  ye  love  them  which  love  you,  what  reward 
have  ye  ?  Be  ye  therefore  perfect  as  your  Father 
in  heaven  is  perfect."  First  restraint,  then  sacri- 
fice, is  the  law  of  the  Christian  character.  Force  is 
reserved  that  it  may  be  freely  spent.  "  We  Flor- 
entines," said  the  old  scholar  in  "  Romola,"  "  live 
scrupulously,  that  we  may  spend  splendidly." 


Il8      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

Here  is  no  new  code  of  social  laws.  Jesus  is 
not  falling  in  his  turn  into  the  legalism  against 
which  he  had  protested,  or  defining  righteousness 
once  more  in  terms  of  conformity.  He  does  not  leg- 
islate concerning  non-resistance  or  judicial  oaths  or 
self -mutilation ;  he  substitutes  ethical  principles  for 
ethical  maxims,  and  displaces  the  righteousness 
which  is  hypocrisy  or  the  acting  of  a  part,  by  the 
righteousness  which  is  reality  or  the  expression  of 
a  life.  Instead  of  superimposed,  external,  legal 
morality,  tied  to  a  life  as  a  flower  is  wired  to  its 
stalk,  the  growth  of  the  Christian  character  is  like 
the  answer  of  a  seed  to  the  sunshine;  and  this 
straight  normal  growth  puts  forth,  as  its  first 
shoots,  the  righteousness  of  self -judgment,  self- 
control,  and  self-sacrifice.1 

Such  is  the  first  word  of  the  ethics  of  Jesus. 
He  sets  over  against  each  other  the  conscience 
regulated  from  without  and  the  conscience  ap- 
proved from  within,  ceremonial  conformity  and 
spiritual  morality,  rectitude  and  righteousness,  an 
ethical  code  and  an  ethical  ideal.  When  one  frees 
this  teaching  from  its  Oriental  phrases,  how  modern 

1  So,  Herrmann,  I4ter  Evang.-soz.  Kong.,  s.  20 :  "  How  does 
Jesus  discriminate  his  ethics  from  the  prevailing  teaching?  Is  it 
enough  to  say  that  righteousness  to  him  concerns  not  outward 
acts  alone,  but  the  inner  disposition?  .  .  .  This  was  no  new  dis- 
tinction. The  word  of  the  Prophets  was  familiar:  'This  people 
honors  ma  with  their  lips,  but  their  heart  is  far  from  me.'  .  .  . 
The  original  element  in  the  ethics  of  Jesus  was  the  completely  prac- 
tical application  of  ethical  ideas  which  had  already  been  theoreti- 
cally developed."  \ 


GROWTH   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER       119 

it  is !  What  is  there  which  so  much  obstructs  a 
teacher  of  righteousness  at  the  present  time  as  the 
conventionalism  and  externalism  of  modern  moral- 
ity ?  The  permissible  without  disgrace,  the  limit 
of  the  law,  the  demands  of  the  social  code  —  are 
not  these  the  ethical  standards  which  prevail  in 
political,  industrial,  and  even  in  domestic  life? 
Who  shall  censure  a  nation  for  oppression  if  the 
forms  of  law  are  maintained ;  or  an  industrial 
movement  for  injustice  if  it  escape  indictment;  or 
a  home  for  divorce  if  the  courts  permit;  or  a 
church  for  loss  of  its  soul  if  it  gain  the  world  ? 
Conform,  consent,  avoid  excess,  march  with  the 
procession,  follow  the  crowd,  keep  to  the  middle 
of  the  road  —  such  are  the  moral  exhortations 
which  the  modern  Scribes  and  Pharisees  offer,  in 
many  a  legislature  and  home  and  church,  as  the 
secret  of  social  security  and  worldly  wisdom.  At 
such  a  time  it  is  worth  recalling  that  the  first  pro- 
test of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  was  against  the  mo- 
rality of  conventionalism.  Ethical  judgments,  he 
affirms,  are  not  to  be  determined  by  majorities,  but 
by  principles ;  not  by  public  opinion,  but  by  univer- 
sal laws.  "  The  sentiment  of  virtue,"  says  Emer- 
son, "  is  a  reverence  and  delight  in  the  presence 
of  certain  divine  laws."  1  Such  was  righteousness 
to  Jesus.  His  teaching  is  not  of  ethical  pruden- 
tialism,  but  of  ethical  idealism.  Conventional  duty- 
doing  is  still  confronted  by  that  saying  which 
has  always  perplexed  the  prudentialist :    "  When 

1  "Miscellanies,"  1875,  p.  66. 


120      JESUS   CHRIST    AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

ye  shall  have  done  all  those  things  which  are  com- 
manded you,  say,  We  are  unprofitable  servants  : 
we  have  done  that  which  was  our  duty  to  do."  That 
nation  follows  Jesus  which  dismisses  compromise 
and  pays  the  price  of  justice ;  that  industrial  order 
commends  itself  to  him  which  substitutes  coopera- 
tion for  competition  and  peace  for  force ;  that  home 
is  fit  for  him  to  enter  where  domestic  unity  is  not 
of  the  lips  or  courts  or  church,  but  of  the  heart 
and  will ;  that  worship  is  in  his  name  where  form 
is  less  than  spirit,  and  orthodoxy  is  less  than  truth. 

Righteousness,  however,  is  but  the  first  word  of 
Christian  morals,  an  ancient  word  which  seemed 
to  Jesus  capable  of  restoration  to  its  spiritual  sig- 
nificance. As  his  teaching  deepens  and  broadens,  a 
second  word  begins  to  displace  the  first,  and  enters 
like  a  new  motif  into  the  music  of  his  life.  Right- 
eousness as  it  rises  from  its  roots  in  the  will  opens 
by  degrees  into  a  fairer  trait,  and  character  blooms 
into  the  flower  which  Jesus  calls  Love.  This  also 
was  to  his  hearers  no  new  word.  "  Thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  said  Leviticus.1 
"  Love  ye  therefore  the  stranger,"  said  Deuter- 
onomy.2 "  What  doth  the  Lord  require  of  thee," 
said  the  Prophets,  "  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love 
mercy";3  "Love  the  truth  and  peace."4  It  is 
the  word  which  Jesus  selects  from  scattered  pas- 
sages of  the  ancient  law,  when  he  is  challenged  to 

1  Lev.  xix.  1 8,  34.  *  Micah  vi.  8. 

2  Deut.  x.  19.  *  Zech.  viii.  19. 


GROWTH   OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER      121 

name  its  great  commandments.1  It  is  his  answer 
to  the  question :  "  What  shall  I  do  to  inherit 
eternal  life  ?  "  2  Love  then,  like  righteousness,  is 
a  word  which  Jesus  draws  from  the  tradition  of  the 
past  and  uses  to  enrich  his  ethical  vocabulary. 

As  his  teaching  proceeds,  however,  he  seems,  in 
this  case,  less  concerned  with  establishing  the  legiti- 
macy of  his  definition,  or  with  the  contrast  between 
the  old  and  new  ideals  of  love.  Righteousness,  in 
his  teaching,  seems  to  grow  unconsciously  toward 
a  fairer  bloom,  and  one  can  hardly  say  where  the 
stalk  ends  and  the  flower  begins.  Love  is  the 
flower  of  righteousness.  The  severer  word  which 
suggests  self-scrutiny  and  self-discipline  bears, 
like  a  stiff  stem,  the  fragrant  blossom  of  self-for- 
getfulness.3  To  this  expression  of  his  desire  the 
mind  of  Jesus  turns  with  increasing  emphasis  as 
his  ministry  proceeds.  Not  righteousness,  but 
love,  becomes  the  supreme  word  of  Christian 
ethics.      The  note  thus  struck  in  the  first  three 

1  Deut.  vi.  5  ;  Lev.  xix.  18  ;  Luke  x.  27.  2  Luke  x.  25. 

8  Stevens, "  The  Teaching  of  Jesus,"  1 901 ,  p.  1 32 :  "  Love,  then,  it 
righteousness  "  ;  and,  more  precisely,  "  Theology  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment," 1899,  p.  104 :  "A  very  slight  attention  to  the  words  of  Christ 
serves  to  show  that  love  and  righteousness  are  for  him  practically 
synonymous,  or  at  any  rate  that  righteousness  is  included  in  love." 
So,  Wendt,  "Teaching  of  Jesus,"  tr.  Wilson,  1897,  Ii  35°»  358,  363 : 
"  When  we  glance  over  all  the  various  directions  given  by  Jesus 
...  we  are  rilled  with  wonder  at  the  elevation  and  consistency  of 
His  conception  of  love."  So,  Hamack,  "  What  is  Christianity  ?  " 
tr.  Saunders,  1901,  pp.  76  ff . :  "The  higher  righteousness  and  the 
commandment  of  love.  ...  Thic  is  the  third  head,  and  the 
whole  of  the  Gospel  is  embraced  under  it." 


122      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

Gospels  goes  sounding  on  through  the  New  Testa- 
ment. It  reverberates  in  Paul's  great  summary 
of  the  things  which  abide:  "and  the  greatest  of 
these  is  Love."  It  is  heard  again  like  a  lingering 
echo  in  the  reiterated  phrases  of  John  :  "  Beloved, 
let  us  love  one  another :  for  love  is  of  God ;  and 
every  one  that  loveth  is  born  of  God."  x 

How  strange  it  seems  that  this  word  should  have 
sunk  to  the  soft  and  sentimental  usage  so  common 
in  Christian  teaching;  that  a  love  which  is  the  flower 
of  righteousness  could  be  interpreted  as  a  parasitic, 
clinging,  not  to  say  sensual  affection,  supported  by 
no  stalk  of  duty  or  root  of  will ! 2  A  great  part  of  the 
literature  of  Christian  love  is  a  tale  of  sickly  senti- 
ment rather  than  a  record  of  maturing  righteous- 
ness.    "  Jesus,"  it  sings, 

"...  the  very  thought  is  sweet, 
In  Thy  dear  name  all  heart-joys  meet ; 
But  sweeter  than  sweet  honey  far, 
The  glimpses  of  Thy  presence  are." 

The  love  which  the  Gospels  describe  is  as  far  as 
possible  from  this  saccharine  sentimentalism.  It 
is  virile,  authoritative,  rational ;  not  neurological, 
but  ethical.  Love  is  the  corollary  of  righteousness. 
Follow  the  line  of  duty  and  it  issues  into  love. 
Seek  first  God's  righteousness  and  you  shall  find 

1  i  John  iv.  7. 

8  Repelling  illustrations  in  abundance  are  reported  with  a  devo- 
tion worthy  of  a  better  theme,  by  W.  James,  "  Varieties  of  Religious 
Experience,"  1902,  esp.  Ch.  I,  "Religion  and  Neurology";  Ch, 
XI-XIII,  "  Saintliness"  j  Ch.  XVI,  XVII,  "  Mysticism." 


GROWTH    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER       123 

the  love  of  Christ.  The  obligations  of  morality 
are  not  detached  from  the  privileges  of  love.  The 
ancient  commandment  held  both  in  one  law.  Love 
is  not  only  a  delight,  but  a  duty.  "Thou  shalt  love," 
say  the  verses  cited  by  Jesus,  "the  Lord  thy  God," 
and  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 
These  things,  says  Jesus  in  the  fourth  Gospel,  "I 
command  you,  that  ye  love  one  another."  Love  to 
man,  like  love  to  God,  is  not  an  effervescent,  pie- 
tistic,  indiscriminate  affection,  but  the  joy  of  good- 
ness, the  passion  of  sacrifice,  the  beauty  of  holiness. 
"  O  how  love  I  thy  law,"  says  the  Psalmist ;  "  Thy 
law  is  my  delight." 1 

This  recognition  by  Jesus  of  the  organic  relation 
of  righteousness  and  love  becomes  the  more  impres- 
sive when  his  teaching  is  contrasted  with  certain 
modern  doctrines  of  moral  growth.  Mr.  Spencer, 
for  example,  teaches  that  "the  feeling  of  moral 
obligation"  is  to  be  ascribed  "to  the  effects  of 
punishments  inflicted  by  law  and  public  opinion." 
By  these  "is  generated  the  sense  of  compulsion 
which  the  consciousness  of  duty  includes,  and  which 
the  word  ' obligation'  indicates,  .  .  .  but  which  has  a 
merely  *  illusive  independence.'  "  2  "  This  remark," 
Mr.  Spencer  proceeds,  "implies  the  tacit  conclu- 
sion; which  will  be  to  most  very  startling,  that  the 
sense  of  duty  or  moral  obligation  is  transitory 
and  will  diminish  as  fast  as  moralization  increases. 
Startling  though  it  is,  this  conclusion  may  be  satis- 

1  Ps.  cxix.  97,  77. 

8  "Principles  of  Ethics,"  Am.  ed.,  1893,  I»  "6  ff. 


124      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

factorily  defended.  .  .  .  With  complete  adapta- 
tion to  the  social  state,  that  element  in  the  moral 
consciousness  which  is  expressed  by  the  word  'obli- 
gation '  will  disappear." 

It  is  not  to  the  present  purpose  to  observe  the 
consequences  of  this  candid  hedonism.  In  identi- 
fying the  good  with  the  pleasant,  it  inevitably 
confuses  acts  which  are  unmoral  with  acts  which 
are  morally  sublime.  When  Mr.  Spencer,  for 
example,  concludes1  that  "among  the  best  ex- 
amples of  absolutely  right  actions  "  may  be  named 
"the  relation  of  a  healthy  mother  to  a  healthy 
infant,"  because  "between  the  two  there  exists  a 
mutual  dependence  which  is  a  source  of  pleasure 
to  both,"  it  is  justly  replied  that  the  same  absolute 
goodness  might  be  affirmed  of  "  free  lunches  .  .  . 
flattery,  bribery,  concubinage  ...  all  of  which 
likewise  combine  advantage  to  one's  self  with  the 
pleasure  of  the  other  party  concerned."2  Animal- 
ism, sensualism,  and  naturalism  become  "  absolute 
morality"  when  love  is  detached  from  obligation; 
and  the  dictum  of  Mill  that  "it  is  better  to  be 
a  dissatisfied  man  than  a  satisfied  pig  "  becomes 
indefensible. 

Precisely  the  reverse  of  this  doctrine  of  emanci- 
pated and  unrestrained  morality  is  the  teaching  of 
Jesus.  Obligation  is  to  him  not  a  limitation,  but  a 
foundation.  External  coercion  is  indeed  outgrown, 
as  the  righteousness  of  externalism  is  supplanted 

1  p.  261. 

2  J.  T.  Bixby,  "The  Crisis  in  Morals,"  1891,  p.  74. 


GROWTH    OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER       125 

by  the  righteousness  of  God ;  but  there  remains  the 
more  imperative  coerciveness  of  ethical  idealism, 
the  obligation  of  sacrifice,  the  imperative  of  love. 
The  artist,  though  he  seem  free  from  the  laws  of 
art,  is  in  fact  free  through  his  mastery,  and  behind 
his  apparent  spontaneity  are  his  discipline  and 
obedience.  It  is  the  same  with  character.  Chris- 
tian love  rests  on  Christian  righteousness.  Love 
does  not  outgrow  duty ;  it  grows  out  of  duty,  as  a 
flower  grows  out  of  its  supporting  stalk.  "  Strong 
Son  of  God,  immortal  Love,"  says  Tennyson,  with 
philosophical  accuracy  as  well  as  poetic  insight. 
Love  to  be  immortal  must  be  strong.  Many  a 
home  has  been  built  on  a  love  which  was  emotional, 
passionate,  physical,  and  has  found  that,  without 
an  underlying  sense  of  obligation,  it  was  built  upon 
the  sand.  The  foundation  of  a  stable  love  is  the 
recognition  of  a  common  duty.  Affection  cannot 
endure  without  respect.  Love  is  not  created  by 
law,  yet  love  is  not  lawless.  It  is  the  rational  joy 
which  emerges  from  right  relations.  "  Love  is  the 
fulfilling  of  the  Law." *  As  Tennyson  finds  in 
Love  a  strong  Son  of  God,  so  Wordsworth  finds 
in  Righteousness  the  root  of  Beauty. 

"  Stern  daughter  of  the  voice  of  God, 
O  Duty  !  .  .  . 

Stern  Lawgiver  !    Yet  thou  dost  wear 
The  Godhead's  most  benignant  grace 
Nor  know  we  anything  so  fair 
As  is  the  smile  upon  thy  face. 

1  Rom.  xiii.  10. 


126      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

Flowers  laugh  before  thee  in  their  beds, 
And  fragrance  in  thy  footing  treads, 
Thou  dost  preserve  the  stars  from  wrong, 
And  the  most  ancient  heavens,  through  thee,  are  fresh  and 
strong."  * 

What,  then,  is  the  form  assumed  by  this  love 
which  is  thus  the  flower  of  righteousness  ?  What 
way  of  expression  and  what  kind  of  fragrance  are 
characteristics  of  Christian  love  ?  Love,  answer 
the  Gospels,  is  to  be  known,  not  by  its  protesta- 
tion or  adoration,  but  by  its  utterance  in  service. 
Love  is  righteousness  applied  to  happiness.  It  is 
not  mystical  rapture ;  it  is  not  passive  acceptance  ; 
it  is  duty  done  with  joy.  To  love  God  is  not  an 
act  of  the  heart  and  soul  only,  but  of  the  mind  and 
strength;  a  rational  and  effective  affection.  To 
love  man  is  to  serve  one's  neighbor.  And  who  is 
one's  neighbor  ?  It  is  he,  Jesus  teaches,  to  whom 
one  may  show  mercy.2  Love  is  mercy,  consider- 
ateness,  sympathy,  self-forgetfulness,  service. 

The  teaching  of  Jesus  becomes  at  this  point,  as 
at  so  many  others,  inseparable  from  the  person 
of  Jesus.  If  the  Christian  religion  were  prima- 
rily doctrinal,  it  might  have  been  taught  by  a 
book  instead  of  a  person,  and  have  offered  a 
system  instead  of  a  saviour;  if  it  were  primarily 
emotional,  it  might  have  been  taught  by  nature  or 
experience,  in  wonder  or  fear,  in  joy  or  pain,  by 
miracle  or  sign.  A  religion  which  begins  in  right- 
eousness and  is  fulfilled  in  love  must,  on  the  other 

i  "  Ode  to  Duty."  2  Luke  x.  29,  37. 


GROWTH   OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER       \2J 

hand,  be  communicated  by  a  person  to  a  person. 
Will  is  moved  by  will.  Character  answers  to 
character.  Love  is  not  felt  for  a  doctrine  or  a 
miracle,  but  for  a  person.  Christian  love  is  not 
vague  ecstasy  or  limp  dependence,  but  service 
based  on  reverence.  "  The  love  of  Christ,"  writes 
his  apostle,  "  constraineth  us."  It  is  not  a  vague, 
generalized,  diffusive  affection,  but  specific,  per- 
sonal, individualized,  the  direction  of  desire  in  the 
way  of  Jesus.1  Christianity,  being  a  way  of  life, 
must  have  its  source  in  a  Life;  being  directed 
toward  conduct,  must  proceed  from  a  Person. 
The  beginnings  of  Christian  discipleship  are  not 
in  knowledge  about  Christ,  or  in  feelings  concern- 
ing Christ,  but  in  obedience,  loyalty,  the  dedication 
of  the  will,  the  following  of  Christ. 

Many  a  preacher  of  the  love  of  Christ  has  failed 
to  take  account  of  the  personal  relation  which  is  its 
essential  element.  A  vast  deal  of  sentiment  in- 
culcated as  Christian  love  has  dispersed  itself  in 
atmospheric  forms,  such  as  the  comprehensive  love 
of  the  heathen  or  the  poor  or  the  negro  or  the 
human  race,  instead  of  being  "  constrained "  or 
compressed  into  a  relation  of  a  person  to  a  person. 
The  teaching  of  Jesus  deals  in  no  abstract  affections. 
It  addresses  itself  to  individuals  through  individuals. 
The  love  it  commends  is  the  righteousness  of  one 
person  applied  to  the  need  of  another  person.  One 
man  is  going  up  the  Jericho  road  and  helps  another 

1  2  Cor.  v.  14.  Compare  the  note  in  Alford's  "  Greek  Testa- 
ment," 1883,  U»  663>  w^h  references. 


128      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

man  by  the  roadside.1  One  woman  pours  out  her 
symbolic  offering  for  the  sake  of  One  who  has 
pitied  her,  and  he  says :  '*  Her  sins  which  are 
many  are  forgiven;  for  she  loved  much."2  The 
ancient  commandment,  "Thou  shalt  love,"  is  ap- 
plied, not  to  general  principles  or  to  classes  of 
persons,  but  as  a  law  between  thy  neighbor  and 
thyself.  Thy  neighbor  and  thyself  stand  for  the 
moment  detached  from  wholesale  programmes  of 
Christian  love,  and  one  is  called  to  discern  another 
self  in  another  person,  and  to  love  even  the  un- 
lovely for  the  sake  of  the  better  self  one  sees.3 
Many  an  impulse  of  Christian  love  finds  its  per- 
sonal application  much  more  difficult  than  its 
emotional  expression.  Missionary  zeal  is  easily 
stirred  by  love  of  a  heathen  world,  but  finds  an 
individual  heathen,  cast  up  at  one's  door,  a  per- 
plexing and  objectionable  problem.  Philanthropists 
bid  us  love  the  poor,  but  a  specific  poor  person  is 
often  unpicturesque  and  sometimes  repelling.  Re- 
formers would  have  us  love  the  human  race,  but 
this  general  principle  becomes  much  obscured 
when  individuals  of  a  race,  black,  brown,  or 
yellow,  are  brought  into  objectionable  proximity. 
Christian  love  becomes,  under  such  conditions,  no 

1  Luke  x.  30  ff.  2  Luke  vii.  47. 

3  So  H.  Holtzmann, " Neutest.  Theol.,"  1897, 1,  s.  176 :  "To  love 
another  as  oneself  is  to  have  the  rest  of  human  society  with  its 
external  and  accidental  relations  retreat  into  the  background,  and 
to  be  confronted  by  the  moral  problem  of  discovering  in  the  single 
life  of  another  the  life  which  is  thine  own.  ('  Dass  in  jedem  Du 
das  eigene  Ich  gefunden  und  anerkannt  werde.')" 


GROWTH   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER       120, 

easy  surrender  to  general  good-nature,  but  a  specific 
victory  of  the  will.  It  stands  before  the  complex 
mystery  of  another  personality,  and  sees  reflected 
in  that  neighbor  a  similar  mingling  of  the  desirable 
and  repelling  which  it  discovers  in  itself,  and,  by 
applying  reflection  to  affection,  is  taught  tolerance, 
justice,  patience,  and  hope.  When  Paul  said,  "  If 
any  man  be  overtaken  in  a  fault,  ye  which  are  spirit- 
ual restore  such  a  one  in  the  spirit  of  meekness  ; 
considering  thyself,  lest  thou  also  be  tempted,"1 
he  was  but  paraphrasing  the  earlier  command : 
"  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 

No  sooner  was  the  Christian  religion  communi- 
cated to  the  little  company  of  the  first  disciples  than 
it  expressed  itself  in  this  individualized  love ;  and 
with  this  awakening  of  personal  responsibility  a  new 
chapter  in  the  history  of  philanthropy  began.  The 
care  of  the  destitute  had  played  a  great  part  in  the 
Roman  world,  but  it  was  a  wholesale  care,  a  legis- 
lative and  governmental  charity,  the  virtue  of  "Pro- 
digalitas"  The  "Caritas"  of  the  Christians  was 
personal,  continuous,  "constrained,"  definite,  the 
love  of  the  Samaritan  for  "a  certain  man,"  the  sin- 
gling out  of  the  individual  from  the  mass.2  "  Love 
your  enemies,"  says  the  teaching  of  Jesus ;  but  one 
cannot  love  his  enemies  by  the  wholesale,  when 
gathered  in  a  hostile  army,  a  threatening  nation,  a 
corrupt  party,  a  despotic  Church.     He  can,  how- 

1  Gal.  vi.  1. 

2  Compare,  however,  the  limitations  of  this  contrast,  noted  in 
"Jesus  Christ  and  the  Social  Question,"  pp.  226  ff.,  and  notes. 

K 


130      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

ever,  detach  the  individual  whom  he  must  love 
from  the  movement  which  he  must  oppose,  and  be 
merciful  to  the  wounded  soldier  or  generous  to  the 
hostile  politician  or  tolerant  to  the  believer  in  an 
irrational  creed.  The  more  confident  is  one's  faith 
in  the  righteousness  of  his  own  cause,  the  more 
aware  he  becomes  that  the  same  honorable  motives 
may  govern  his  enemies.  Christian  liberality  is 
not  a  blurring  of  the  truth  for  love,  but  a  "  speak- 
ing the  truth  in  love."  x  Christian  tolerance  is  the 
outcome,  not  of  loose  sympathies,  but  of  firm  con- 
victions. The  Christian  loves  another  because  he 
knows  himself.  Christian  charity  is  not  reckless 
almsgiving  or  mechanical  schemes,  but  the  patient 
and  painstaking  gift  of  a  life  to  a  life ;  not  alms, 
but  a  friend  ;  not  schemes,  but  a  saviour ;  the  "  con- 
straining "  consequence  of  the  love  of  Christ. 

It  would  seem  as  if  these  two  words  were  a  suf- 
ficient summary  of  the  Christian  character;  and 
they  are,  indeed,  the  words  which  the  first  three 
Gospels  habitually  use  to  express  the  ethical  teach- 
ing of  Jesus.  When,  however,  he  is  led  to  reflect 
upon  character  in  its  wholeness,  and,  as  it  were,  to 
watch  its  growth,  from  the  first  stirring  of  the  will 
through  the  erect  stalk  of  righteousness  to  the 
flower  of  love,  a  third  word  comes  to  his  lips 
which  covers  the  entire  moral  process,  and  holds 
within  itself  both  righteousness  and  love.  It  is  the 
word  Life.  The  ethical  growth  which  we  have 
traced  appears  to  Jesus  to  be  a  growth  toward  life, 

1  Eph.  iv.  15. 


GROWTH   OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER       131 

or  an  attainment  of  life,  and  the  end  of  this  process 
is  described  by  him  as  the  only  condition  where 
one  can  be  reasonably  called  alive. 

To  speak  of  life  as  the  end  of  conduct  was,  again, 
no  unprecedented  use  of  language.  The  Old  Testa- 
ment in  many  noble  passages  teaches  that  the  issue 
and  reward  of  righteousness  are  life.  "  In  the  way 
of  righteousness  is  life,"  says  the  Book  of  Prov- 
erbs ; 1  "  The  fear  of  the  Lord  is  a  fountain  of 
life  " ; 2  "  He  is  in  the  way  of  life  that  keepeth  in- 
struction." 3  "The  just,"  says  Habakkuk,  "shall 
live  by  his  faith."4  "He  is  just,  he  shall  surely 
live,"  says  Ezekiel.5  Life,  however,  as  thus  affirmed 
by  the  Old  Testament  to  be  the  reward  of  con- 
duct, is,  for  the  most  part,  life  in  its  ordinary  and 
physical  interpretation.  "  He  asked  life  of  thee, 
and  thou  gavest  it  him,  even  length  of  days  " ; 6 
"  With  long  life  will  I  satisfy  him  "  ; 7  "  In  length 
of  days  is  understanding."  8  Jesus  deals  with  this 
word  as  he  had  already  dealt  with  the  word  Right- 
eousness. He  accepts  it  as  the  word  which  serves 
his  purpose,  but  gives  it  a  kind  of  definition 
which  to  the  prevailing  tradition  seemed  strange 
and  new.  Parallel  with  the  physical  thought  of  life 
and  death  Jesus  discerns,  in  the  earlier  teaching,  a 
spiritual  interpretation.    "The  way  of  life,"  says  the 

1  Prov.  xii.  28.  8  Ezek.  xviii.  9, 

2  Prov.  xiv.  27.  *  Ps.  xxi.  4. 
8  Prov.  x.  17  ;  see  also  viii.  35,  xv.  24. 

4  Hab.  ii.  4.  7  Ps.  xci.  1 6. 

8  Job  xii.  12. 


132      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

Book  of  Proverbs,  "is  above  to  the  wise";1 
"Whoso  findeth  Me  [Wisdom]  findeth  life";2 
"He  that  f olloweth  after  mercy,  findeth  life."  3  " In 
his  favor  is  life,"  sang  the  Psalms ; 4  "  With  thee 
is  the  fountain  of  life."  5  "  Wisdom  giveth  life  to 
them  that  have  it,"  adds  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes.6 
To  this  golden  thread  of  spiritual  meaning  Jesus 
boldly  attaches  his  teaching,  as  though  the  physi- 
cal application  of  the  word  had  been  incidental, 
and  its  ethical  significance  were  self-evident  and 
essential.  With  no  sense  of  strain  or  novelty  he 
quietly  carries  over  the  whole  conception  of  life 
into  the  world  of  the  spirit,  in  language  which  if  it 
were  not  so  familiar  would  still  surprise  and  be- 
wilder.7 When  the  lawyer  cites  to  Jesus  the  great 
words  of  the  law  concerning  love  to  God  and  men,8 
Jesus  replies :  "  Thou  hast  answered  right ;  this 
do  and  thou  shalt  live."  Is  it  of  a  prolongation 
of  physical  existence  that  the  promise  speaks? 
On  the  contrary,  Jesus  is  recalling  the  attention  of 
the  inquirer  to  those  sayings  in  the  earlier  tradition 
which  confirm  his  spiritual  teaching  :  "  Ye  shall 
therefore   keep  my  statutes,  and  my  judgments, 

1  Prov.  xv.  24.  4  Ps.  xxx.  5. 

2  Prov.  viii.  35.  6  Ps.  xxxvi.  9. 
8  Prov.  xxi.  21.                                    8  Eccl.  vii.  12. 

7  So,  Jacoby,  "Neutest.  Ethik,"  1899,  s.  12:  "  While  the  concep- 
tion of  life  in  the  Old  Testament  is  not  yet  detached  from  its  physical 
sense,  or,  at  the  most,  is  but  striving  to  be  free,  life,  to  Jesus,  is  a 
spiritual  possession,  which,  though  already  ours  in  the  present  world, 
will  be  completely  developed  only  in  the  world  of  the  spirit." 

8  Deut.  vi.  5 ;  Lev.  xix.  18 ;  Luke  x.  25,  28. 


GROWTH    OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER       1 33 

which  if  a  man  do,  he  shall  live  in  them."  *  For- 
tified by  such  testimony  Jesus  does  not  hesitate  to 
teach  that  love  to  God  and  love  to  man  are  not 
merely  rewarded  by  life,  but  are  in  fact  life  itself, 
and  that  until  one  thus  obeys  the  ancient  com- 
mandment he  does  not  truly  live. 

The  transfer  of  meaning  is  most  obvious  in  the 
story  of  the  Prodigal.  When  the  penitent  boy 
returns,  his  father  says  of  him :  "  This,  my  son, 
was  dead,  and  is  alive  again."  2  Is  this  a  merely 
rhetorical  embellishment  of  the  father's  welcome  ? 
On  the  contrary,  it  is  a  statement  of  fact,  of  which 
physical  changes  are  the  imperfect  symbol.  This 
boy  had  been  actually  dead  and  had  risen  from  the 
dead.  Life  and  death  are  incidents  of  the  soul. 
A  man  may  be  physically  alive,  and  yet  may  ex- 
perience the  whole  process  of  dying  and  coming  to 
life  again.  At  the  very  beginning  of  his  ministry 
Jesus  adopts  this  use  of  language.  He  cites  to  the 
Tempter  the  ancient  saying  concerning  the  manna 
in  the  wilderness;3  but  he  translates  this  special 
saying  concerning  physical  food  into  a  general  law 
of  spiritual  life :  "  Man  shall  not  live  by  bread 
alone,  but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the 
mouth  of  God."  4  Is  this  a  figurative  or  hyperbolic 
use  of  words  ?  On  the  contrary,  as  Jesus  re- 
peatedly insists,  this  life,  which  is  not  nourished 
by  bread,  and  into  which  one  enters  when  he  loves 
God  and  men,  is  the  real  life  of  man.     Life  and 

1  Lev.  xviii.  5  ;  Neh.  ix.  9  ;  Ezek.  xx.  1 1  ;  and  cited,  Rom.  x.  5. 

2  Luke  xv.  24.  8  Deut.  viii.  2.  *  Matt.  iv.  4. 


134      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

death  are  ethical  processes.  A  man  may  believe 
himself  to  be  alive  when  in  fact  he  is  dead.  He 
may  set  himself,  as  he  says,  "  to  see  life,"  when  it 
is  but  death  that  he  sees.  Another  man  may  be 
dying  in  the  body,  yet  thoroughly  alive.  A  man's 
life,  Jesus  teaches,  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance 
of  the  things  which  he  possesseth ; 1  it  is  more  than 
meat ; 2  the  way  that  leads  to  it  is  narrow ; 3  he  that 
loses  it,  finds  it.4  "  If  thou  wilt  enter  into  life," 
he  categorically  concludes,  "keep  the  command- 
ments."6 

Such  is  the  word  which  Jesus  borrows  from 
the  earlier  tradition  and  appropriates  to  his  own 
purpose.  The  Apostle  Paul  inherits  from  his 
Master  the  same  use  of  language.  "  To  be  car- 
nally minded  is  death,"  he  says ;  "  to  be  spiritually 
minded  is  life."  6  "  The  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in 
Christ  Jesus  hath  made  me  free  from  the  law  of 
sin  and  death  " ; 7  "  That  we  also  should  walk  in 
newness  of  life."  8  More  specifically,  however,  and 
with  more  sustained  reiteration,  the  new  word  for 
the  Christian  character  dominates  the  fourth  Gos- 
pel. In  this  philosophical  reflection  on  the  mis- 
sion of  Jesus  nothing  further  is  heard  of  the  word 
Righteousness,9  and  the  word  Love  is  expanded 


1  Luke  xii.  15.  4  Matt.  xvi.  25.  7  Rom.  viii.  2. 

2  Luke  xii.  23.  6  Matt.  xix.  17.  8  Rom.  vi.  4. 

8  Matt.  vii.  14.  6  Rom.  viii.  6. 

9  The  word  appears  only  in  the  reproof  of  the  Comforter,  John 
xvi.  8,  10.  Compare  Wendt,  "  Teaching  of  Jesus,"  tr.  Wilson,  1897, 
1,254- 


GROWTH    OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER       1 35 

in  significance  until  it  comprehends,  not  only  hu- 
man affection,  but  the  mystical  communion  of  the 
Father,  the  Son,  and  the  brethren.1  When,  how- 
ever, the  purpose  of  Jesus  is  to  be  completely  ex- 
pressed, no  definition  seems  to  the  author  of  the 
fourth  Gospel  capacious  enough  to  hold  it  but  the 
great  word  Life.  "In  him,"  the  prologue  begins, 
"  was  life ;  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men." a 
"  I  am  the  bread  of  life,"  3  goes  on  the  lofty  teach- 
ing, as  though  explicitly  denying  that  bread  for 
the  body  was  the  staff  of  real  life.  "  The  bread 
of  God  is  he  which  cometh  down  from  heaven,  and 
giveth  life  unto  the  world."  4  "  Except  ye  eat  the 
flesh  of  the  Son  of  man,  and  drink  his  blood,"  it 
proceeds  with  still  bolder  spiritualizing,  "ye  have  no 
life  in  you  "  ;  6  "  The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you, 
they  are  spirit,  and  they  are  life  "  ;  6  "  That  believ- 
ing ye  might  have  life."  7  Thus  from  its  beginning 
to  its  close  the  fourth  Gospel  is  a  psalm  of  life.  The 
life  which  is  created  and  sustained  by  communion 
with  Jesus  is  the  only  true  life.  The  philosophy  of 
Christian  experience  is  summed  up  in  that  great 
utterance  which  has  in  it  the  ring  of  oral  tradition  : 
"  I  am  come  that  they  might  have  life,  and  that 
they  might  have  it  more  abundantly."  8 

Nor  does  this  psalm  of  life  cease  with  its  spiritual 
interpretation  of  the  present  world.  It  rises  to  a 
still  higher  strain  in  passages,  not  exclusively  the 

1  John  xiv.  23  ff.,  xv.  12  ff.  6  John  vi.  63. 

2  John  i.  4.         4  John  vi.  33.       "  John  xx.  31. 
8  John  vi.  35.       6  John  vi.  53.       8  John  x.  10. 


136      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

possession  of  the  fourth  Gospel,  where  Jesus  iden- 
tifies life  with  eternal  life.  When  the  young 
man  asks  :  "  What  good  thing  shall  I  do,  that  I 
may  have  eternal  life?"1  Jesus  directs  him  to  the 
immediate  duties  and  sacrifices  which  confront  him, 
assuring  him  that  this  is  the  gate,  not  only  of 
discipleship,  but  of  all  which  can  be  called  life. 
"  If  thou  wilt  enter  into  life,  keep  the  command- 
ments. .  .  .  Come  and  follow  me."  Eternal  life 
is  not  separable  from  the  life  that  now  is.  "  This 
is  life  eternal,"  the  fourth  Gospel  more  definitely 
announces,  "  that  they  might  know  thee,  the  only 
true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ,  whom  thou  hast  sent."  a 
"Whoso  eateth  my  flesh  and  drinketh  my  blood, 
hath  eternal  life."3  Life,  in  its  New  Testament 
usage,  has  in  it  what  a  distinguished  preacher  has 
called  a  quality  of  timelessness.4  It  is  immediately 
accessible  and  it  is  eternal.  One  may  enter  life 
here;  and  once  having  entered  life,  has  eternal  life. 
On  through  the  New  Testament  echoes  the  great 
word  Life,  until  it  dies  away  in  the  song  of  the 
New  Jerusalem,  whose  river  is  a  river  of  life,  whose 

1  Matt.  xix.  16  ff. ;  so  Mark  x.  17  ;  Luke  xviii.  18. 

2  John  xvii.  3.  So,  Jacoby,  "Neutest.  Ethik,"  1899,  ss.  18,  23: 
"  We  hear  [in  the  fourth  Gospel]  neither  the  demand  for  /xerdvoLa 
nor  the  command  of  biKaioativr),  nor  is  there  a  picture  of  the 
development  of  righteousness  through  hunger  and  thirst.  .  .  .  The 
Christian  life  is  presented  rather  as  completed  unity  (« ein  in  sich 
vollendetes  Ganzes')." 

*  John  vi.  54. 

*  J.  B.  Mozley,  "University  Sermons,"  1876,  pp.  46  ff.,  "Eternal 
Life." 


GROWTH   OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER       1 37 

food  is  from  the  tree  of  life,  whose  crown  for 
him  that  is  faithful  unto  death  is  a  crown  of  life, 
and  whose  final  blessing  is  that  whosoever  will 
shall  drink  of  the  water  of  life  freely.1 

Here  is  the  largest  name  for  the  Christian  char- 
acter. The  root  of  Christian  ethics  is  in  the  com- 
mand: Seek  first  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  His 
righteousness ;  the  flower  of  this  righteousness  is  a 
rational  and  serviceable  love ;  but  when  this  growth 
from  root  to  flower  is  surveyed  as  a  whole,  the  moral 
process  is  found  to  be  nothing  else  than  the  process 
of  life  itself.  Life  to  the  Christian  is  the  life  of 
growing  character.  All  else  that  may  be  described 
as  life  is  but  a  symbol  of  life.  A  man's  life  con- 
sisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things  which 
he  possesseth,  whether  these  things  be  physical 
strength  or  negotiable  securities  or  titles  of  respect. 
His  life  consists  in  the  capacity  to  use  his  posses- 
sions, in  the  discipline  of  the  body  as  the  instru- 
ment of  the  will,  in  wealth  of  righteousness  and 
love.     "Wealth,"  taught  Mr.  Ruskin,  "is  the  pos- 

1  Rev.  xxi.  6,  ii.  7,  10,  xxii.  17.  So,  Wendt,  "Teaching  of 
Jesus,"  tr.  Wilson,  1897,  J»  243>  24&:  "Eternal  life  ...  in  the 
Johannine  discourses,  it  is  spoken  of  as  something  already  possessed 
in  the  present.  .  .  .  Jesus  .  .  .  not  only  exhibits  a  peculiar  use  of 
language,  but  also  a  peculiar  thought,  not  occurring  in  the  sayings 
recorded  in  the  Logia  and  in  Mark."  Jacoby  (op.  cit.),  s.  II: 
"  Jesus  defines  salvation  as  life,  or  eternal  life.  Life,  however,  in 
its  limited  sense,  is  an  ethical  possession,  a  disposition,  a  determina- 
tion of  the  will.  Righteousness  is  thus  a  constituent  of  life.  This 
relation  had  already  been  indicated  in  the  Old  Testament,  where 
life  is  described  as  the  fruit  of  righteous  men.'' 


I38      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

session  of  the  valuable  by  the  valiant,  ...  To  be 
'  valuable '  is,  therefore,  to  '  avail  towards  life.'  "  * 
The  teaching  of  Jesus  gives  a  similar  definition  of 
life.  As  a  man  may  seem  rich  and  be  in  fact  poor, 
so  he  may  seem  alive  and  be  in  fact  dying  or  dead. 
When  a  man  considers  the  problem  of  his  life,  his 
first  inquiry  should  be,  not  whether  he  is  living  well 
or  living  ill,  but  whether  he  is  living  at  all.  As  he 
gives  his  will  to  righteousness,  and  as  his  righteous- 
ness grows  toward  loving  service,  he  is  beginning 
to  live ;  and  as  he  proceeds  in  that  way  of  life,  he 
finds  it  dissociated  from  the  changes  of  the  body 
and  a  part  of  the  eternal  life.  "  He  that  hath  the 
Son,"  says  the  Epistle  in  which  love  and  life  seem 
most  at  one,  "  hath  life.  .  .  .  These  things  have 
I  written  unto  you  .  .  .  that  ye  may  know  that  ye 
have  eternal  life."2 

To  this  height  of  utterance  rises  the  ethical 
teaching  of  Jesus.  The  Christian  character  is 
not  a  fragmentary  collection  of  detached  virtues, 
or  an  occasional  spasm  of  excellence,  or  a  pass- 
ing vision  of  perfection.  It  is  a  normal,  healthy, 
gradual  growth,  like  that  growth  of  nature  on  which 
the  eye  of  Jesus  was  wont  to  dwell  with  peculiar 
joy;  a  growth  not  beyond  the  power  of  a  plain, 
imperfect,  hesitating  life,  if  only  its  will  be  firmly 
rooted  in  the  great  decision,  which  first  seeks 
righteousness  and  then  devotes  that  righteousness 
to  love.     "  First  the  blade,"  teaches  Jesus,  "  then 

1  "Unto  This  Last,"  Am.  ed.,  1870,  pp.  99  ff. 

2  I  John  v.  12,  13. 


GROWTH    OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER       1 39 

the  ear,  after  that  the  full  corn  in  the  ear  " ; 1  and 
the  Apostle  Paul,  though  he  turns  not  to  nature  but 
to  human  life  for  his  figures  of  speech,  describes  the 
Christian  character  in  the  same  terms  of  growth. 
The  "  perfecting  of  the  saints  "  is  like  the  develop- 
ment of  the  body.  We  are  "  henceforth  no  more 
children,"  but  come  unto  a  "  perfect  man,"  unto 
"the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of 
Christ,"  and  "  grow  up  into  him  in  all  things,  which 
is  the  head."2 

If,  however,  this  series  of  experiences  represents 
the  normal  growth  of  the  Christian  character,  if 
this  dedication  of  the  will  to  service  constituted  to 
Jesus  the  only  life  which  was  rational  and  secure, 
what,  one  finally  asks,  is  to  be  the  fruit  of  this  way 
of  life  ?  What  may  the  Christian  character  do  for 
one,  or  rather  what  may  one  do  with  it  ?  What  is 
the  practical  issue  of  this  kind  of  life,  and  what 
place  may  it  hold  among  the  circumstances  and 
needs  of  modern  men  ?  Such  questions  are  neither 
trivial  nor  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  Jesus.  One  of 
the  most  striking  evidences  of  the  sanity  of  his 
teaching  is  the  candor  with  which  he  points  out  the 
rewards  of  the  Christian  character.  He  does  not 
exhort  his  disciples  to  act  without  regard  to  con- 
sequences or  to  let  goodness  be  its  own  reward. 
He  says,  on  the  contrary:  "Your  reward  is 
great";  "Great  is  your  reward";  "Whosoever 
shall  give  to  drink  unto  one  of   these  little  ones 

1  Mark  iv.  28.  2  Eph.  iv.  12,  13,  14. 


140      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

.  .  .  shall  in  no  wise  lose  his  reward."  *  Conduct 
has  fruits  which  it  is  reasonable  to  recognize.  As 
one  sows,  so  shall  he  reap.  "  By  their  fruits  ye 
shall  know  them " ;  "  For  the  tree  is  known  by 
its  fruit." 2  Even  of  the  hypocrites  Jesus  says : 
"Verily  I  say  unto  you,  They  have  their  re- 
ward." 3  What,  then,  is  the  reward  of  the  Chris- 
tian character  ?  Into  what  condition  of  conscious 
gain  does  one  enter  when  he  has  discovered  that 
righteousness  and  service  make  the  true  life  of 
man? 

The  answers  which  have  been  given  to  this 
question  have  been,  as  a  rule,  of  two  opposite 
kinds.  On  the  one  hand,  the  fruit  of  Christian 
discipleship  has  been  found  in  a  condition  of  joy 
and  peace,  the  rapture  and  exaltation  of  the  saints; 
on  the  other  hand,  this  culmination  of  Christian 
experience  has  been  found  in  the  sense  of  escape 
from  the  penalty  of  sin,  the  salvation  of  one's  soul. 
The  first  view  sees  in  the  Christian  character  a 
way  of  blessedness ;  the  second  sees  in  it  a  way  of 
deliverance.  To  the  first,  the  purpose  of  Jesus 
is  sanctification ;  to  the  second,  it  is  redemption. 
Two  widely  different  moral  types  thus  come  to 
represent  the  Christian  character.  On  the  one 
hand  are  the  calm  and  holy  lives  of  fair,  sweet 
saints,  tranquil  in  their  desires,  radiant  in  their 
faith,  inheriting  the  Master's  promise:  "Be  ye 
therefore  perfect,  even  as  your  Father  which  is 

1  Matt.  v.  12,  x.  42 ;  Luke  vi.  23. 

8  Matt.  vii.  20,  xii.  33.  8  Matt.  vi.  16. 


GROWTH    OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER       I4I 

in  heaven  is  perfect." 1  On  the  other  hand  are  the 
heroic  experiences  of  victory  over  stubborn  desires 
and  persistent  sins,  the  bearing  of  heavy  burdens, 
the  discipline  of  sorrow,  the  way  of  the  cross. 
Which  of  these  is  the  natural  fruit  of  the  Christian 
character  ?  Is  it  to  be  known  by  its  capacity  for 
joy  or  by  its  capacity  for  pain  ?  Does  it  grow  most 
luxuriantly  in  the  light  or  in  the  dark  ?  If  a  life 
commit  itself  to  the  way  of  the  Christian  character, 
will  it  find  that  way  easy  or  hard,  a  way  of  peace 
or  a  way  of  strife  ?  Seeking  first  the  Kingdom  of 
God  and  His  righteousness,  what  are  the  things 
which  will  be  added  ? 

There  is  much  in  the  Gospels  which  may  serve 
to  fortify  each  of  these  views  of  the  fruits  of  the 
Christian  character.  As  one  listens  to  the  first 
announcement  of  the  message  of  Jesus,  he  hears 
the  Teacher  dwelling  with  fond  reiteration  on  the 
sense  of  blessedness,  the  assurance  of  reward,  the 
substantial  peace,  which  his  disciples  will  attain. 
"  Blessed,"  he  says  in  his  strain  of  jubilant  con- 
fidence, "are  the  poor  in  spirit,  the  merciful,  the 
pure  in  heart "  ;  "  Blessed  is  that  servant,  whom  his 
lord  when  he  cometh  shall  find  so  doing  "  ;  "  Come, 
ye  blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the  kingdom 
prepared  for  you." 2  This  note  with  which  the 
Gospels  begin  is  sustained  until  their  close.  The 
last  gift  of  Jesus  to  his  disciples,  according  to  the 
fourth  Gospel,  is  this  sense  of  an  abiding  happi- 
ness which  the  vicissitudes  of  life  cannot  destroy. 

1  Matt.  v.  48.  2  Matt.  v.  3-8,  xxiv.  46,  xxv.  34. 


142      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

"  Peace  I  leave  with  you,  my  peace  I  give  unto 
you.  That  my  joy  might  remain  in  you,  and  that 
your  joy  might  be  full." 1  Through  all  these  teach- 
ings we  seem  to  see  the  Master  trying  to  communi- 
cate to  his  friends  the  joyous  satisfaction  and  lofty 
content  which  are  to  issue  from  the  confident  ac- 
ceptance of  the  Christian  character. 

No  sooner,  however,  does  one  listen  attentively 
to  this  note  of  tranquil  confidence  than  he  hears 
another  and,  apparently,  a  dissonant  chord,  which 
seems  to  be  struck  in  quite  another  mood.  It  is 
the  chord  of  conflict,  the  warning  of  pain,  the  assur- 
ance of  hardness,  the  motif  of  the  cross.  "  He  that 
taketh  not  his  cross  and  followeth  after  me,  is  not 
worthy  of  me";2  "  Ye  shall  be  hated  of  all  men  for 
my  name's  sake  " ; 3  "  Behold,  I  send  you  forth  as 
lambs  among  wolves"  ;4  "Think  not  that  I  am  come 
to  send  peace  on  earth :  I  came  not  to  send  peace, 
but  a  sword."  6  The  minor  note  of  suffering  breaks 
in  with  recurring  cadence  upon  the  simpler  har- 
monies of  blessedness,  until  at  last  it  seems  to 
dominate  the  Teacher's  mind,  and  he  cries  out  in 
his  own  great  agony :  "  My  soul  is  exceeding 
sorrowful,  even  unto  death :  .  .  .  O  my  Father,  if 
it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me."6 

Must  one,  then,  conclude  that  the  character  of 
Jesus,  like  the  character  which  he  commends,  is 
fundamentally  a  moral  discord  ?  On  the  contrary, 
it  is  precisely  at  this  point  that  we  seem  to  see,  be- 

1  John  xiv.  27,  xv.  II.         8  Matt.  x.  22.         5  Matt.  x.  34. 

3  Matt.  x.  38.  4  Luke  x.  3.  •  Matt.  xxvi.  38,  39. 


GROWTH   OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER       1 43 

neath  the  unharmonized  and  fragmentary  record, 
the  expanding  experience  of  Jesus  himself,  enrich- 
ing his  teaching  with  more  comprehensive  elements, 
as  though  with  new  and  subtler  harmonies.  At  the 
beginning  of  his  work,  with  the  gracious  promises 
of  his  message  possessing  his  mind  and  pressing  to 
his  lips,  no  cloud  overshadows  his  assurance  that 
what  he  has  to  teach  is  to  bring  blessedness  and 
joy.  "  Rejoice,"  he  says,  "  and  be  exceeding  glad. 
Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth,  the  light  of  the  world  ! 
Blessed  are  ye,  when  men  shall  revile  you  and  per- 
secute you,  and  shall  say  all  manner  of  evil  against 
you  falsely,  for  my  sake."1  Throughout  the  Gali- 
lean ministry  runs  this  buoyant  strain  of  tranquil 
confidence,  and  the  voice  of  the  young  Teacher  has 
in  it  the  thrill  of  delight  and  the  ring  of  command. 
Soon,  however,  —  and  the  point  of  transition  seems 
clearly  indicated,  —  there  is  heard  a  sterner  note. 
"And  Jesus  went  out,  and  his  disciples,  into  the 
towns  of  Caesarea  Philippi,  .  .  .  and  he  began  to 
teach  them,  that  the  Son  of  man  must  suffer  many 
things,  and  be  rejected  of  the  elders,  and  of  the 
chief  priests,  and  scribes,  and  be  killed,  and  after 
three  days  rise  again."2     From  the  time  of   this 

1  Matt.  v.  n,  12,  13,  14. 

2  Mark  viii.  27,  31 ;  Matt.  xvi.  13  ;  Luke  ix.  22.  So,  Fairbairn, 
"Philosophy  of  the  Christian  Religion,"  1902,  p.  395  :  "At  this 
point  there  comes  a  most  extraordinary  and  unexpected  develop- 
ment in  the  teaching.  Coincident  with  the  new  emphasis  in 
His  person  is  the  new  thought  of  His  passion.  No  one  could  be 
less  fitly  described  as  the  '  Man  of  Sorrows '  than  the  Jesus  of  the 
'Galilean  springtime.'      The  idea  embodied  in   Holman   Hunt's 


144      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

withdrawal  the  words  of  Jesus  become  touched  with 
a  new  pathos,  and  the  Beatitudes  give  way  to  more 
poignant  utterances.  It  is  as  though  a  calm  and 
sunny  dawn  were  succeeded  by  a  sombre  and 
threatening  day.  As  Jesus  "  goes  up  to  Jerusalem," 
the  shadow  of  the  cross  falls  across  his  road.  His 
way  is  leading,  not  through  unclouded  blessedness, 
but  through  conflict  and  pain.  "  From  that  time 
forth  began  Jesus  to  shew  unto  his  disciples,  how 
that  he  must  go  unto  Jerusalem,  and  suffer  many 
things." 1  "  And  Jesus  going  up  to  Jerusalem  took 
the  twelve  disciples  apart  in  the  way,  and  said  unto 
them,  Behold,  we  go  up  to  Jerusalem,  and  the  Son 
of  man  shall  be  betrayed  unto  the  chief  priests  and 
unto  the  scribes,  and  they  shall  condemn  him  to 
death,  and  shall  deliver  him  unto  the  Gentiles  to 
mock,  and  to  scourge,  and  to  crucify  him."  2 

His  teaching  becomes  colored  by  this  assurance 
of  his  destiny.  Instead  of  promises  of  reward, 
there  are  warnings  of  conflict  and  calls  to  vigilance. 

'  The  Shadow  of  the  Cross '  is  false  to  nature  and  to  history.  .  .  . 
The  morning  of  His  ministry  was  a  golden  dawn.  .  .  .  The  new 
development  in  His  teaching  occurs,  then,  at  the  moment  when  the 
disciples  had  come  to  conceive  Him  as  the  Christ."  So,  Wernle, 
"  Anfange  unserer  Religion,"  1901,  s.  53  :  "  It  is  a  sublime  fact  that 
Jesus  first  calls  for  this  confession  at  Csesarea  Philippi,  where  he  and 
the  disciples  are  threatened  by  danger.  A  faith  without  danger  and 
suffering  had  never  been  commended  by  him  ;  .  .  .  but  now  the 
confession  is  necessary  because  the  suffering  is  near.  .  .  .  Jesus 
does  not  hesitate  to  make  the  readiness  to  suffer  a  part  of  disciple- 
ship."  Compare  also  O.  Holtzmann,  "  Leben  Jesu,"  1901,  Kap.  XI, 
"  Auf  heidnischem  Boden." 

1  Matt.  xvi.  31.  *  Matt.  xx.  17-19. 


V^c At  i FO£it^ 

GROWTH    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER       I45 

"  Whosoever  will  save  his  life  shall  lose  it ;  he  that 
shall  endure  unto  the  end,  the  same  shall  be  saved. 
Many  are  called,  but  few  are  chosen.  If  any  man 
would  come  after  me,  let  him  deny  himself,  and 
take  up  his  cross,  and  follow  me."  x  As  the  great 
word  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  blessedness, 
so  the  word  which  now  springs  to  the  lips  of  Jesus 
is  watchfulness.  Characters  are  tested  by  their 
readiness  or  unreadiness.  The  wise  servant  is  ready 
for  the  reckoning ;  the  foolish  virgins  stand  before 
the  fast-shut  door ;  the  faithful  porter  watches  for 
his  Lord's  coming.  "  What  I  say  unto  you  I  say 
unto  all,  Watch."2  Thus,  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
deepens  and  broadens  like  a  river  which  receives 
new  tributaries  along  its  course  as  it  proceeds.  His 
mind  had  at  first  turned  with  delight  to  the  rewards 
of  discipleship,  and  he  had  perceived  that  the  only 
rational  and  permanent  happiness  was  to  be  found  in 
the  life  he  had  to  teach.  This  doctrine  of  the  end  is 
now  amplified  by  a  doctrine  of  the  way.  The  path 
to  blessedness,  though  it  will  reach  that  end,  runs 
through  a  region  of  misinterpretation,  solitude,  and 
discipline.  Jesus  does  not  retract  the  Beatitudes. 
The  supreme  satisfaction  in  life  is  to  be  gained  by 
none  other  than  the  poor  in  spirit  and  the  pure  in 
heart.  Blessedness  is,  however,  not  separable  from 
suffering ;  and  among  the  things  which  are  added 

1  Matt.  xvi.  25,  xxiv.  13,  xxii.  14,  xvi.  24 ;  Mark  viii.  34 ;  Luke 
ix.  23,  xiv.  27. 

2  Matt.  xxv.  1,   13,  19,  xxiv.  42 ;    Mark  xiii.   34,   37 ;    Luke 
xxi.  36. 

L 


I46      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

to  one  who  seeks  God's  Kingdom  is  the  bearing  of 
one's  own  cross. 

Such  is  the  paradox  of  the  Christian  character. 
It  is  to  be  blessed,  but  it  is  not  to  be  sheltered. 
It  hears  the  word :  "  My  peace  I  give  unto  you," 
but  it  hears  also  that  other  word  :  "  Not  as  the 
world  giveth"  ;  it  is  the  saving  of  the  soul,  but  the 
saving  is  through  losing ;  it  is  the  house  built  upon 
a  rock,  yet  the  porter  of  that  house  must  watch.1 
The  teaching  of  Jesus  evades  neither  the  prob- 
lem of  pleasure  nor  that  of  pain.  The  Chris- 
tian character  takes  account  of  both.  It  leads 
to  blessedness,  but  it  anticipates  hardness.  Its 
end  is  reached,  not  by  escape  from  trouble,  but 
by  victory  over  trouble.  The  peacemakers  are 
to  be  blessed ;  but  the  peacemakers  are  not  so 
much  those  who  avoid  war,  as  those  who  contend 
for  equity.  They  are  not  seekers  of  peace ;  they 
are  makers  of  peace.  What  they  are  seeking  is  the 
Kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteousness ;  and  the 
blessedness  of  peacemaking  is  thus  added  to  them. 
The  outcome  of  righteousness  is  blessedness ;  but 
the  process  of  righteousness  is  sacrifice. 

Frankly,  however,  as  Jesus  recognizes  this  para- 
dox of  ethics,  which  has  divided  the  hedonists  from 


1  Mark  xiii.  34.  The  contrast  of  types  and  the  Christian  solu- 
tion of  the  antinomy  are  admirably  stated  by  Hugh  Black,  "  Cul- 
ture and  Restraint,"  1901,  pp.  329  ff.  :  "  In  all  Christ's  teaching  on 
self-denial  it  must  never  be  forgotten  that  it  always  meant  to  Him 
some  larger  good.  .  .  .  The  surrender  of  self  to  the  will  of  God 
makes  all  necessary  self-denial  not  worthy  to  be  mentioned." 


GROWTH   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER      I47 

the  ascetics,  there  remains  in  his  teaching  a  further 
quality  which  separates  him  from  both  these  moral 
types.  Clearly  as  he  notes  these  incidents  of 
pleasure  and  of  pain,  he  is  strangely  indifferent  to 
them.  The  experiences,  both  of  blessedness  and 
of  cross-bearing,  are  to  happen  along  the  way  that 
he  is  going,  but  they  are  plainly  not  the  end  which 
he  is  most  concerned  to  reach.  Jesus  is  neither 
hedonist  nor  ascetic.  Pleasure  and  pain  are  not 
the  motives  of  his  conduct,  but  the  corollaries  of 
his  conduct  —  the  environment,  as  it  were,  through 
which  conduct  has  to  go.  It  is  as  though  one, 
while  walking  his  chosen  path  to  his  predetermined 
end,  had  time  to  note  the  scenery  along  his  road 
and  to  take  account  both  of  the  sunny  heights  and 
sunless  valleys  through  which  his  pathway  led. 
The  Christian  character  goes  its  way  with  a  pur- 
pose which  lies  quite  beyond  the  changeful  light 
and  shadow  of  its  path ;  and  while  it  marches 
along  looks  about  it  on  either  hand.1 

And  what  is  this  end  toward  which  the  Christian 
character  proceeds,  and  in  which  its  growth  is  ful- 

1  Tolstoi,  among  many  excesses  of  interpretation,  notes  this 
moral  detachment  in  Jesus  (Vol.  XXII,  "  The  Christian  Teaching," 
tr.  Wiener,  1905,  p.  458)  :  "A  man  who  lives  a  Christian  life  does 
not  ascribe  any  great  meaning  to  his  joys  .  .  .  but  looks  on  them 
as  accidental  phenomena  which  meet  him  on  the  path  of  life  ; 
.  .  .  and  does  not  look  upon  his  sufferings  as  something  that  ought 
not  to  be,  but  looks  on  them  as  an  indispensable  phenomenon  of 
life,  like  friction  at  work."  So,  Jacoby,  "Neutest.  Ethik,"  1899, 
s.  103  :  "  Jesus  applies  the  motive  of  reward,  but  at  the  same  time  is 
free  from  it.  .  .  .    The  essence  of  reward  is  eternal  life." 


I48      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

filled?  The  answer  to  this  question  becomes  ob- 
vious when  one  recalls  the  total  impression  which 
was  made  by  the  character  of  Jesus  himself.  The 
first  effect  of  his  personality  upon  his  hearers  was, 
as  has  been  said,  an  effect  of  power.  His  word 
was  with  power  ;  he  taught  with  authority.  Behind 
his  tenderness,  his  sympathy,  his  patience,  utter- 
ing itself  in  his  insight,  leadership,  and  tranquillity, 
was  this  quality  of  force  and  mastery,  the  effect  of 
a  commanding  personality,  the  power  of  character. 
Such  power  may  manifest  itself  both  in  action  and 
in  repose.  There  is  a  power  to  lead  and  a  power 
to  calm ;  a  strength  of  expression  and  a  strength 
of  reserve.  Both  these  forms  of  power  were 
illustrated  by  Jesus.  His  word  had  power  both  to 
stir  and  to  calm.  He  was  strong  to  defy  and 
strong  to  suffer.  He  was  equally  powerful  when 
he  drove  the  traders  from  the  Temple,  and  when 
again  he  was  accused  of  Herod  and  "answered 
him  nothing."  *  Nor  is  the  secret  of  this  power 
obscure.  It  lay  in  singleness  of  desire.  Jesus  had 
committed  himself  without  reservation  to  the  work 
which  had  been  given  him  to  do.  His  horizon  was 
clear  from  obstructing  aims.  His  business  was  to 
preach  the  Kingdom  of  God,  and  this  singleness 
of  desire  clarified  his  mind  and  gave  simplicity  and 
consistency  to  his  duty.  He  was  sure  of  himself 
because  he  was  not  concerned  about  himself.  His 
detachment  from  the  world  gave  him  power  over 
the  world.      Being  lifted   up  from  the  world,  he 

1  Matt,  xxvii.  12  j  Mark  xiv.  61  ;  Luke  xxiii.  9, 


GROWTH   OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER       1 49 

drew  men  unto  him.  The  secret  of  his  poise  of 
character  was  the  completeness  of  his  idealism. 
He  made  himself  the  instrument  of  his  Father's 
will,  and  the  blessedness  or  pain  of  his  experience 
was,  as  it  were,  the  shifting  landscape  through 
which  he  walked  his  way. 

This  quality  of  power  is  the  perfect  fruit  of 
the  Christian  character.  In  many  a  vivid  phrase 
Jesus  describes  the  power  which  his  disciples  re- 
ceive. "  Behold,"  he  says,  "  I  give  unto  you  power 
to  tread  on  serpents  and  scorpions."  2  "  And  he 
called  unto  him  the  twelve  and  gave  them  power 
against  unclean  spirits."  "  And  to  them,"  adds  the 
fourth  Gospel,  "  gave  he  power  to  become  the  sons 
of  God." 2  The  Apostle  Paul  reiterates  the  same 
thought:  "According  to  the  power  which  the 
Lord  hath  given  me,"3  he  says,  "that  the  power 
of  Christ  may  rest  upon  me."4  The  Christian 
character,  that  is  to  say,  as  it  grows  through  right- 
eousness to  love,  is  discovered  to  be  not  only  life 
itself,  but  life  at  its  full  power.  Character  means 
effectiveness,  force,  capacity,  serviceableness,  an 
instrument  with  which  things  may  be  done,  a 
power  by  which  things  may  be  moved,  or  resisted, 
or  overcome.  "  Character,"  said  Emerson,  "  is  cen- 
trality,  the  impossibility  of  being  displaced  or  over- 
set. .  .  .  The  natural  measure  of  this  power  is  the 
resistance  of  circumstances."6     The  purpose  of 

1  Luke  x.  19.  8  2  Cor.  xiii.  10. 

2  Matt.  x.  1  ;  Luke  x.  19  ;  John  i.  12.  4  2  Cor.  xii.  9. 

6  "  Essays,"  2d  series,  1869,  pp.  96  ft. 


150      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

Jesus  is  not  accomplished  when  character  has 
become  meek,  enduring,  long-suffering,  calm.  Be- 
neath these  evidences  of  self-control  there  is  a 
certain  volcanic  quality  in  the  Christian  character, 
capable  of  sudden  expression  in  indignation,  pas- 
sion, or  rebuke.  The  same  Jesus  who  recalled  the 
prophecy  of  a  Man  of  sorrows  acquainted  with 
grief,  turned  upon  the  traders  in  the  Temple  with 
righteous  wrath  and  lashed  the  Pharisees  with  pas- 
sionate irony.  The  same  Paul  who  was  an  instru- 
ment of  persecution  became  through  the  very 
passion  of  his  nature  the  most  serviceable  instru- 
ment of  the  new  faith.  Leadership,  mastery  of 
oneself  and  of  the  world,  mark  the  character 
derived  from  the  influence  of  Jesus  Christ.  The 
teaching  of  Jesus  ends  as  it  began,  by  rejecting  the 
self-satisfied,  the  self-important,  the  consequential, 
and  accepting  the  poor  in  spirit,  the  childlike,  the 
burden-bearing;  but  his  teaching  does  not  end 
without  imparting  to  those  whom  it  accepts  a  new 
gift — the  gift  of  power.  It  promises  to  the  self- 
distrustful  a  new  sense  of  capacity  ;  to  the  crushed 
a  new  strength  of  resistance;  to  the  insignificant 
a  place  in  the  world  ;  to  plain  people  a  spiritual 
democracy;  to  the  mourners  the  comfort  of  self- 
forgetting  service;  to  the  solitary  the  sense  of 
companionship ;  to  the  poor  in  spirit  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven  within.  What  all  these,  and  many 
more  ineffective,  effaced,  and  hesitating  lives,  most 
need  is  an  assurance  of  significance,  a  sense  of 
power;  and  their  response  to  the  ethics  of  Jesus 


GROWTH   OF   THE    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER       1 5  I 

is  that  of  Paul:  "When  I  am  weak,  then  am  I 
strong."  1 

Whence  does  such  moral  power  proceed  ?  It 
issues,  as  in  Jesus  himself,  from  single-mindedness 
of  desire,  and  from  subordination  both  of  pleasure 
and  of  pain.  So  long  as  a  character  hovers  be- 
tween competing  ends,  computing  the  consequences 
of  pleasure  and  of  pain,  balancing  the  expediency 
of  self-interest  and  of  self-sacrifice,  its  spiritual 
momentum  slackens.  It  is  like  a  vessel  that  hangs 
in  the  wind  until  her  steerageway  is  lost.  Move- 
ment involves  decision,  as  a  vessel  obeys  its  wheel. 
To  seek  righteousness  first  is  to  have  other  things 
added ;  to  seek  other  things  first  is  to  find  that  the 
more  they  are  gained,  the  more  of  life  they  sub- 
tract. The  divided  life  is  without  moral  power. 
Control  of  circumstances  is  gained  by  detachment 
from  circumstances.  The  only  mastery  of  the 
world  is  for  those  to  whom  its  apparent  issues  are 
indifferent,  and  to  whom  its  service  is  essential. 
Only  those  who  are  lifted  up  from  the  earth  draw 
men  unto  them.  The  world  is  possessed  by  those 
who  are  not  possessed  by  it.  The  momentum  of 
love  is  the  source  of  power. 

Has  such  a  character  a  place  among  the  special 
conditions  of  the  modern  world  ?  What  is  it,  in- 
deed, for  which  such  a  world  is  waiting  but  an 
accession  of  spiritual  power  ?  What  are  the  traits 
demanded  by  the  perplexing  circumstances  of  social 
and  industrial  life  ?    They  are  efficiency,  service- 

1  2  Cor.  xii.  io. 


152      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

ableness,  moral  force,  strength  of  character.  Insti- 
tutions, governments,  industrial  machinery,  political 
schemes,  are  elaborately  prepared  to  accomplish 
their  ends  if  they  can  but  be  supplied  with  the 
motive  power  of  idealism.  How  to  take  command 
of  circumstances  instead  of  being  their  slave ;  how 
to  own  one's  wealth  and  not  be  owned  by  it; 
how  to  rule  one's  spirit  as  well  as  to  take  a  city ; 
how  to  be  among  the  leaders  and  not  among  the 
led ;  how  to  labor  together  with  God  instead  of  be- 
coming a  cog  in  some  great  machine  ;  how  to  main- 
tain peace  of  mind  amid  the  disasters,  illusions,  and 
tragedies  of  experience,  —  this  is  the  cry  for  power 
which  goes  up  from  many  a  life,  ensnared  —  as 
whose  is  not  ?  —  in  the  mechanism  and  materialism 
of  the  world. 

To  this  cry  for  moral  power  among  unprecedented 
conditions  there  comes  with  new  force  the  answer 
of  Jesus  Christ.  One  cannot  be,  he  says,  both  the 
servant  of  circumstances  and  their  master,  the  slave 
of  the  world  and  its  freeman.  What  hinders  char- 
acters from  efficiency  is  their  divided  aim.  They 
want  blessedness,  but  they  want  things  inconsistent 
with  blessedness.  They  seek  the  Kingdom  of  God 
and  His  righteousness,  but  they  seek  other  things  at 
the  same  time.  They  want  pure  politics,  but  they 
want  also  political  success;  honesty  in  business, 
but  profit  in  business ;  simplicity  for  their  children, 
but  luxury  for  themselves ;  happiness,  but  not 
suffering ;  humility,  but  not  humiliation ;  leader- 
ship, but  not  the  leadership  of  love.     The  teaching 


GROWTH   OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER       1 53 

of  Jesus  tolerates  no  such  ethical  bimetallism. 
The  source  of  power  is  discovered  by  him  in  the 
undivided  dedication  of  the  will  to  righteousness 
and  service.  The  incorruptible  statesman,  the 
just  employer,  the  self-effacing  mother,  the  wise 
giver,  not  of  alms  alone,  but  of  the  mind  and  the 
strength,  —  these  are  not  only  characters  to  be 
commended,  but  they  are  instruments  of  power 
through  which  the  world's  redemption  is  to  come. 
The  only  effective  utilitarians  are  the  idealists. 
The  heart  of  the  world  turns  with  its  final  loyalty 
to  lives  untainted  by  self-seeking  and  greed.  He 
that  would  be  the  greatest  must  be  the  servant  of 
all.  The  modern  world  is  a  vast  mechanism  which 
waits  for  power  to  do  its  work,  and  the  form  of 
power  most  applicable  to  the  mechanism  of  the 
modern  world  is  the  Christian  character. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   PERSONAL    CONSEQUENCES    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN 
CHARACTER 

We  have  set  before  ourselves  the  Teacher  and 
the  teaching.  The  Teacher  is  not  impracticable 
and  visionary,  but  convincing  and  sane.  The 
teaching  is  not  emotional  and  extravagant,  but 
natural  and  consistent,  a  doctrine  of  moral  growth, 
a  call  to  the  Christian  character.  We  turn  from 
the  past  to  the  present;  from  the  character  pre- 
sented to  us  in  the  Gospels  to  the  character  de- 
manded by  the  conditions  of  modern  life.  What 
relation  does  the  one  bear  to  the  other?  Is  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  applicable  to  the  circumstances 
of  the  modern  world  ?  Has  the  Christian  charac- 
ter a  place  in  an  environment  so  remote  from  that 
in  which  the  teaching  of  Jesus  was  delivered  ? 
Are  we  still  Christians  ?  Is  it  possible  to  adjust 
the  Christian  character  to  the  needs  of  the  present 
age? 

It  is  frequently  urged,  both  by  critics  of  the 
present  age  and  by  critics  of  the  Gospels,  that  the 
perpetuation  of  the  Christian  character  under 
the  conditions  of  modern  life  is  possible  only 
through    a    pious    self-deception,   which    is    soon 

J54 


THE  PERSONAL  CONSEQUENCES       I 55 

proved  to  be  untimely  and  impracticable.  "  If 
Christianity,"  it  is  categorically  laid  down,  "is  to 
mean  the  taking  of  the  Gospels  as  our  rule  of  life, 
then  we  none  of  us  are  Christians,  and,  no  matter 
what  we  say,  we  all  know  we  ought  not  to  be."  * 
The  circumstances  under  which  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  was  delivered,  were,  we  are  reminded,  even 
in  that  distant  age,  exceptional.  "  It  was,"  said 
Strauss,  "  as  though  a  preacher,  during  a  Russian 
occupation  of  Poland,  should  address  the  native 
population  on  their  immediate  duties." 2  Under 
such  conditions  many  problems  which  might  con- 
cern the  rest  of  the  world  would  be  overlooked, 
and  many  sayings,  applicable  to  the  special  needs 
of  an  oppressed  and  despairing  people,  would  be 
colored  by  the  peculiar  and  pathetic  traits  of  the 
time  and  place.  "The  life  of  the  family,"  said 
Strauss  again,  "falls  into  the  background  of  the 
teaching  of  this  man  without  a  family;  he  is  at 
least  neutral  toward  the  State ;  property  is  not  only 
rejected  by  him  because  of  his  vocation,  but  ob- 
viously opposed ;  and  practically  everything  which 
concerns  art  or  the  aesthetic  interests  of  life  lie 
beyond  the  horizon  of  his  mind."3  "Jesus,"  said 
Schopenhauer,  "transformed  the  optimism  of  Israel 


1  F.  H.  Bradley,   International  Journal  of  Ethics,   October, 
1894,  p.  25. 

2  "  Der  Alte  und  der  neue  Glaube,"  6te  Aufl.,  1873,  s.  25,  cited 
by  H.  Holtzmann,  "Neutest.  Theologie,"  1897,  h  I77>  note. 

8  "  Leben  Jesu  fur  das  deutsche  Volk  bearbeitet,"  1864,  s.  626, 
cited  by  Luthardt,  "  Gesch.  d.  christl.  Ethik,"  1888,  s.  73. 


156      JESUS    CHRIST  AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

into  the  pessimism  of  India.  .  .  .  The  New  Testa- 
ment must  be  in  some  way  of  Indian  descent.  Its 
ethics  are  thoroughly  Oriental,  and  issue  into  the 
morals  of  asceticism,  its  pessimism  and  its  Avatar."  1 
To  the  same  effect  is  the  comparison  of  Strauss : 
"Sakya  Muni  was  a  nihilist;  Jesus,  a  dualist.  .  .  . 
Nothing  which  contemplates  human  activity  as  an 
end  or  object  has  for  him  any  worth."  2  All  these 
historical  judgments  lead  to  the  same  conclusion. 
We  are  not  Christians.  The  Christian  type  of 
character  was  local,  Hebraic,  Palestinian,  and  has 
been  inevitably  outgrown.  A  new  world  must  con- 
struct a  new  moral  code  and  create  a  character  fit 
for  its  new  needs. 

This  conclusion  of  critics  concerning  the  unfitness 
of  Christianity  for  modern  life  has  been  greatly 
fortified  by  two  literary  influences  which  have  had  a 
profound  effect  on  many  minds.  Tolstoi,  the  John 
the  Baptist  of  the  nineteenth  century,  preaching 
in  his  Russian  wilderness  a  message  of  repentance, 
simplicity,  and  universal  love,  identifies  this  teach- 
ing with  the  Gospel  of  Jesus.  The  future  of  soci- 
ety depends,  he  affirms,  on  a  revival  of  religion,  an 
emancipation  from  "personal  life,"  a  discovery 
of  essential  Christianity,  a  return  to  the  Gospel. 
The  Gospel,  however,  demands  the  complete 
abandonment  of  the  complexity  of  the  modern 
world,  and  a  reversion  to  simplicity,   non-resist- 


l  Werke  VI,  Kap.  XV,  "  Ueber  Religion,"  ss.  407  ff. 

a  "Der  Alte  und  der  neue  Glaube,"  6te  Aufl.,  1873,  ss.  61  ff. 


THE  PERSONAL  CONSEQUENCES       1 57 

ance,  perfect  flexibility  of  social  relationship  and 
superiority  to  the  claims  of  family,  friendship, 
or  State.1 

What  is  the  effect  on  the  modern  mind  of  this 
interpretation  of  Christianity  ?  The  sins  of  civiliza- 
tion, it  may  be  confessed,  deserve  grave  indictment, 
but  is  the  conversion  of  civilization  to  this  social 
creed  either  conceivable  or  desirable  ?  Is  it  possible 
to  detach  the  personal  conscience  from  the  world  of 
other  people  and  to  determine  conduct  as  though  the 
social  order  were  unreal  and  social  duties  were  in- 

laMy  Religion,"  tr.  Smith,  1887,  pp.  3,  16,  94,  153:  "My 
faith  was  chiefly  shattered  by  the  indifference  of  the  Church  to 
what  seemed  to  me  essential  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  .  .  .  The 
command  '  Resist  not  evil '  is  the  central  point  of  Jesus'  doctrine. 
...  It  is  verily  the  key  to  the  whole  mystery.  .  .  .  The  entire 
doctrine  of  Jesus  inculcates  renunciation  of  the  personal,  imaginary 
life."  "Never  resist  evil  by  force;  never  return  violence  for  vio- 
lence; if  any  one  beats  you,  bear  it;  if  any  one  would  deprive  you 
of  anything,  yield  to  his  wishes;  if  any  one  would  force  you  to 
labor,  labor;  if  any  one  would  take  away  your  property,  abandon 
it  at  his  demand."  With  more  appearance  of  system  and  with  great 
nobility  of  utterance  the  ethics  of  Tolstoi  is  summed  up  in  "The 
Christian  Teaching,"  1897,  tr.  Wiener,  1905,  Vol.  XXII  of  Works, 
where  the  "  personal  life  "  and  the  "  true  life  "  are  contrasted  (p. 
375),  and  the  five  offences  enumerated  which  ruin  men:  the  per- 
sonal offence,  the  family  offence,  the  offence  of  work,  the  offence 
of  companionship,  and  the  offence  of  the  common  good  (pp.  397  ff.). 
The  first  offence  justifies  one's  conduct  by  its  being  "useful  to 
men";  the  second  by  its  being  good  for  one's  children;  the  third 
by  the  desire  to  finish  one's  work;  the  fourth  by  its  usefulness  to 
friends;  the  fifth  by  its  being  for  the  "  good  of  the  State,  of  the 
nation,  of  humanity."  "To  live  according  to  Christ's  teaching  a 
man  must  destroy  the  obstacles  which  interfere  with  the  true  life  " 
(p.  413). 


158      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

significant  ?  Ought  one  to  divorce  his  own  business 
from  God's  business,  and  "  be  at  all  times  prepared 
to  throw  up  any  business  as  soon  as  the  execution 
of  God's  work  calls  him  "  ?  Ought  one  to  "  do  the 
same  for  any  stranger  that  he  wishes  to  do  for  his 
family "  ?  Ought  one,  "  under  no  condition,  to 
prefer  the  people  of  his  own  nation  or  country  to 
the  people  of  another  nation  or  country  "  ? 1  If  this 
is  the  Christian  religion,  if  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
is  inconsistent  with  devotion  to  one's  business, 
one's  home,  and  one's  country,  then  these  teach- 
ings are  plainly  not  adapted  to  the  modern  world. 
Here  and  there  some  noble  protestant  against  the 
lusts  and  strife  of  civilization  may  retreat  to  primi- 
tive solitude,  but  the  great  multitude  must  stay 
where  the  work  of  the  world  is  done,  and  meet 
their  moral  problems  within  the  circle  of  their 
commercial,  domestic,  and  political  life.  What  the 
monastic  system  was  to  the  mediaeval  world,  —  a 
retreat  for  the  elect  whom  the  unsanctified  must 
maintain, — that  is  the  Christian  anarchism  of 
Tolstoi  amid  the  prosaic  trade  and  toil  which  turn 
the  wheels  of  the  world.  If  on  no  other  terms  we 
can  be  Christians,  then  Christians  we  are  not  and 
cannot  be,   and  must  be   content  with   what  has 


1  Compare  Hugh  Black, "  Culture  and  Restraint,"  1901,  pp.  334  ff. : 
"  *  Entangle  not  thy  heart  with  any  creature,'  says  a  Kempis,  but 
it  is  part  of  the  divine  education  of  life  that  we  should  be  so  en- 
tangled. The  sweetest  and  noblest  qualities  of  human  nature  .  .  . 
are  alone  developed  through  the  ties  that  bind  us  to  our  fellows, 
in  the  family,  the  Church,  the  state." 


THE  PERSONAL  CONSEQUENCES       1 59 

been  called  an  interim  ethics,  adapted  to  life  as  it 
must  be  lived.1 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  heard  at  the  same 
point  the  more  defiant  prophecy  of  Nietzsche.  The 
Christian  ideal,  gentle,  compassionate,  ascetic,  is  to 
be  frankly  regarded,  not  only  as  antiquated,  but 
as  repulsive  to  the  modern  mind.  Social  stability 
rests  on  a  more  virile  doctrine  of  the  survival  of 
the  fit  and  the  victory  of  the  strong.  Christianity 
is  "  a  religion  of  decadence."  "  Every  instinct 
which  is  beneficent  or  contributory  to  life  or  es- 
tablishing the  future  is  mistrusted."  "  To  live  so 
that  one  shall  not  care  to  live,  becomes  the  problem 

1  Paulsen  {Deutsche  Monatsschrift  fur  das  gesamte  Leben  der 
Gegenwart,  October,  1903,  ss.  1 19  ff.,  "  Die  Ethik  Jesu  in  ihrem  Ver- 
haltniss  zur  Gegenwart  ")  confirms  the  interpretation  of  Tolstoi,  and 
concludes  that  "  the  ethics  of  heaven  cannot  be  at  the  same  time  the 
ethics  of  earth.  We  need  an  interim  ethics  for  this  life."  Compare 
Herrmann,  "Die  sittlichen  Weisungen  Jesu,"  1904,  s.  30 ff. :  "Tolstoi 
bears  the  stamp  of . .  .  Russian  culture  and  the  Russian  Church.  The 
best  in  the  Russian  Church  is  devoted  to  tradition.  In  this  Tolstoi 
is  its  true  son.  He  submits  to  the  sayings  of  Jesus  even  when  he 
cannot  convert  them  to  reality.  He  finds  it  essential  to  follow  as 
universal  the  principle  of  Jesus  that  one  resist  not  evil  ;  but  he 
cares  nothing  for  the  responsibility  for  discord  which  would  ensue. 
Such  responsibility  does  not  concern  the  Russian  Church ;  it  is 
buried  in  the  happy  sense  of  reverence  for  tradition.  .  .  .  The 
energy  of  a  man  is  applied  to  reduce  human  life  to  the  condition  of 
a  child."  So  A.  Harnack,  "  What  is  Christianity  ?  "  tr.  Saunders, 
1 901,  p.  86  :  "To  him  [Tolstoi],  too,  the  shunning  of  the  world  is 
the  leading  characteristic  of  Christianity.  There  are  thousands  of 
our  '  educated '  readers  .  .  .  who  at  the  bottom  of  their  hearts  are 
pleased  and  relieved  to  know  that  Christianity  means  the  denial  of 
the  world;  for  then  they  know  very  well  that  it  does  not  concern 
them." 


l60      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

of  life."  "  Christianity  is  the  one  great  curse,  the 
one  great  spiritual  corruption,  the  one  great  instinct 
of  revenge,  for  which  no  means  are  too  poisonous, 
secret,  subterranean,  or  mean."1  Virtue  must  be 
freed  from  "  moralic  acid."  Ethics  has  been  hith- 
erto tedious  and  soporific,  and  morality  a  weariness 
{eine  Langweiligkeii)?  "When  one  has  learned 
the  symptoms  of  decadence,  he  understands  morality 
and  what  is  concealed  under  its  sacred  names  and 
formulas,  —  the  impoverished  life,  the  desire  to  end 
it,  the  weariness  of  it.  Morality  is  the  negation  of 
life." 3  "  How  a  conscientious  theologian  can  re- 
main a  Christian  is  more  than  I  can  understand. 
...  It  is  a  matter  of  honor  ...  to  hold  one's 
faith  pure  from  belief  in  God.  .  .  .  We  are  not 
Christians.  We  have  outgrown  Christianity,  not 
because  our  lives  have  been  too  far  from  it,  but 
because  they  have  been  too  near.  ...  It  is  our 
more  strenuous  and  instinctive  piety  which  forbids 
us  to  continue  Christians."4  "Would  that  he 
[Jesus]  had  remained  in  the  desert,  far  from  the 
good  and  righteous.  Then  perhaps  he  would  have 
learned  to  live  and  to  love  the  earth  —  even  to  smile. 
.  .  .  He  died  too  soon.  Had  he  lived  to  my  age 
[38]  he  would  have  renounced  his  teaching."5 

1  F.  Nietzsche,  Sammtl.  Werke,  Leipzig,  1895  ff-»  vnI»  27°» 
272,  313,  "Der  Antichrist." 

2  VII,  78,  183,  "  Jenseits  von  Gut  und  Bose." 

*  VIII,  88  ft*.,  "  Gotzen-Dammerung." 

*  XIII,  313,  317,  318,  "Die  Befreiung  vom  Christentum." 

6  VI,  107,  "Also  sprach  Zarathustra."    Citations  might  be  multi- 
plied, as  in  XIII,  120,  130,  "Zur  Kritik  der  Moral"  :  "As  Optics  is 


THE  PERSONAL  CONSEQUENCES       l6l 

To  such  a  philosophy  of  life  the  Christian  char- 
acter with  its  sympathy,  compassion,  social  re- 
sponsibility, and  love  of  the  unlovely  appears  an 
anaemic  survival.1  The  "  Superman,"  as  one  of 
the  most  audacious  of  Nietzsche's  disciples  calls 
him,  "  will  snap  his  superfingers  at  all  Man's  pres- 
ent trumpery  ideals  of  right,  duty,  honor,  justice, 
religion,  even  decency."  2  Christian  sentimentalism 
must  be  supplanted  by  virile  aggressiveness.  The 
Christian  character  has  no  place  among  the  prob- 
lems and  programmes  of  the  present  age. 

Here  are  two  teachings  which  seem  as  remote 
from  each  other  as  light  from  darkness,  or  peace 
from  war.  One  is  a  gospel  of  non-resistance,  the 
other  of  force;  one  is  a  programme  of  reversion, 
the  other  a  war-cry  of  revolution ;  one  is  a  doctrine 
of  the  spirit,  the  other  a  doctrine  of  the  flesh.  Both 
teachings,  however,  are  expressions  of  social  pessi- 
mism. Behind  both  is  the  shadow  of  the  philosophy 
of  Schopenhauer.3     Both  coincide  in  the  conclusion 

forgotten  in  seeing,  so  is  Ethics  in  morality."  "  One  no  longer  eats 
his  food  for  duty's  sake,  he  will  soon  do  nothing  for  duty's  sake." 
"  Der  Fall  Wagner,"  VIII,  85  :  "  The  praxis  of  the  Church  is  hostile 
to  vitality."  The  language  of  abuse  finally  becomes  untranslatable, 
VIII,  272  :  "  Alles  Missratene,  aufstandisch  Gesinnte,  schlecht  Weg- 
gekommene,  der  ganze  Auswurf  und  Abhub  der  Menschheit." 

1  Compare  C.  F.  G.  Heinrici,  "  Diirfen  wir  noch  Christen  blei- 
ben  ?  "  1903  ;   "  1st  die  Lebenslehre  Jesu  zeitgemass  ?  "  1904. 

2  G.  Bernard  Shaw,  "Man  and  Superman,"  1904,  "The  Revo- 
lutionist's Hand-book,"  p.  194. 

8  The  relation  is  traced  in  the  case  of  Nietzsche  by  Rittelmeyer, 
"Friedrich  Nietzsche  und  die  Religion,"  1904,  s.  12:  "Nietzsche 
became  an  atheist  on  the  day  when,  as  a  student  in  Leipzig,  he 

M 


1 62      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

that  the  Christian  type  is  inapplicable  to  the  world 
as  it  is.  Tolstoi  proposes  a  new  world,  Nietzsche 
proposes  a  new  man  ;  but  the  inference  concerning 
the  adaptation  of  the  Christian  type  to  the  present 
world  is  in  both  cases  the  same.  Either  the  world 
is  not  fit  for  the  Christian  character,  or  the  Chris- 
tian character  is  unfit  for  the  world.  We  are  not 
Christians.  Either  a  new  man  is  needed  to  cope 
with  things  as  they  are,  or  a  new  world  must  be 
created  to  fit  the  Christian  character. 

These  strictures  and  prophecies  appear,  however, 
to  involve  two  misconceptions.  They  misappre- 
hend, on  the  one  hand,  the  nature  of  the  teaching 
of  Jesus,  and  on  the  other  hand,  the  nature  of  the 
present  age.  The  teaching  of  Jesus  is,  it  is  true, 
not  to  be  violently  detached  from  the  circumstances 
and  problems  of  his  own  time.  He  was  a  Galilean, 
teaching  other  Galileans.  He  was  a  Hebrew,  apply- 
ing and  fulfilling  the  Hebrew  law.  In  form  and 
manner  his  teaching  was  applied  to  conditions 
remote  from  our  own,  and  the  adjustment  of  its 
precepts  to  modern  life  is  quite  impracticable.  This 
admission,  however,  instead  of  reducing  the  teach- 
ing to  insignificance,  indicates  precisely  where  its 
significance  is  to  be  found.  The  method  of  Jesus 
was,  it  is  true,  occasional,  incidental,  contem- 
porary. He  was  not  posing  before  the  future; 
he  was  dealing  with  people  as  they  met  him,  with 

discovered  at  a  bookseller's  the  works  of  Schopenhauer  " ;  and  in 
both  cases  by  M.  Adams,  International  Journal  of  Ethics,  October, 
1900,  "  The  Ethics  of  Tolstoi  and  Nietzsche." 


THE  PERSONAL  CONSEQUENCES       I 63 

the  temptations,  prejudices,  and  possibilities  of 
their  Palestinian  lives.  He  speaks  to  them,  not  to 
us.  Yet,  occasional  though  the  teaching  be,  its 
fundamental  intention  was  to  lift  those  lives  of 
his  own  time  into  the  sense  of  the  timeless  and 
eternal,  and  to  disclose  to  them,  through  the  inter- 
pretation of  their  own  experience,  the  permanent 
principles  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

Is  not  this  problem,  which  thus  lay  before  the 
mind  of  Jesus,  precisely  the  problem  which  presents 
itself  to  each  succeeding  generation  as  it  interprets 
the  message  of  Jesus  ?  The  form  of  Christian 
teaching  is  occasional,  but  the  intention  of  Chris- 
tian teaching  is  universal.  The  modern  student  of 
the  Gospels  is  called,  as  Jesus  was  called,  to  see  the 
timeless  through  the  medium  of  the  temporal,  and  to 
interpret,  through  the  occasionalism  of  the  present 
age,  that  which  was  expressed  by  Jesus  through  the 
occasionalism  of  his  own  age.  To  revert,  with  Tol- 
stoi, to  the  literal  reproduction  of  the  circumstances 
of  the  Gospels,  is  thus  not  only  impracticable,  but 
contrary  to  the  intention  of  the  Gospel.  To  dismiss 
from  consideration,  with  Nietzsche,  the  teaching  of 
Jesus,  because  it  was  addressed  to  another  civiliza- 
tion and  another  age,  is  to  mistake  the  temporary 
for  the  permanent,  and  instead  of  solving  the  prob- 
lem of  Christian  ethics  to  leave  that  problem  unap- 
proached.  The  relation  of  Jesus  to  his  own  age  is 
the  subject  of  Christian  archaeology  ;  the  discovery 
of  the  principles  which  underlie  the  relation  of 
Jesus  to  his  own  age  is  the  subject  of  Christian 


164      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

ethics.  The  circumstances  of  Palestine  in  the  time 
of  Jesus  were,  it  is  true,  like  the  condition  of  the 
Poles  under  Russia  ;  yet  it  is  possible  to  infer  from 
the  conduct  of  the  Czar  of  Russia,  in  his  dealing 
with  the  specific  problem  of  the  Poles,  what  gen- 
eral principles  of  governmental  control  would  be 
applied  by  him  in  a  widely  different  case.  The 
occasionalism  of  the  Gospels  is  the  frame  in  which 
the  principles  of  the  Gospels  are  set.  Through  the 
incidental  looks  out  the  picture  of  the  permanent. 
Christian  ethics  is  not  a  reiteration  of  the  maxims 
of  the  Gospels;  it  is  the  rational  inference  con- 
cerning conduct  to  be  derived  from  the  facts  of  the 
Gospels. 

On  the  other  hand,  these  critics  of  the  Christian 
character  misapprehend  the  nature  of  the  present 
age.  On  the  face  of  things  it  may  seem  to  be  a 
time  of  brutal  competition  and  material  success,  a 
commercial,  militant  age,  a  time  when  it  is  as  im- 
practicable to  follow  Tolstoi  in  his  heroic  repro- 
duction of  the  circumstances  of  the' Gospels,  as  it 
is  to  urge  against  Nietzsche  that  the  principles  of 
the  Gospels  are  still  applicable  to  society.  When, 
however,  one  listens  more  attentively  to  the  tumult 
of  the  time,  does  he  not  hear  beneath  these  harsh 
noises  of  the  present  age  an  undertone  of  serious 
desire,  quite  distinct  from  its  obtrusive  discords? 
Is  there  not,  at  the  heart  of  the  time,  a  deep  sense 
of  dissatisfaction  with  material  gains,  with  luxury 
and  ostentation,  with  political  aggrandizement  and 
commercial  power  ?     Riches  increase,  but  are  not 


THE  PERSONAL  CONSEQUENCES       l6$ 

great  numbers  of  the  rich  seriously  considering  the 
peril  and  the  use  of  riches  ?  Commerce  expands, 
but  does  not  commercial  success  leave  many  a  life 
with  a  confession  of  emptiness  and  failure  ?  Wars 
still  scourge  the  nations,  but  is  not  the  hope  of  in- 
ternational peace  being  converted  from  a  Utopian 
dream  into  a  practical  programme  ?  "  111  fares  the 
land,"  said  Goldsmith, 

"  To  hastening  ills  a  prey, 
Where  wealth  accumulates  and  men  decay," 

and  many  a  modern  prophet  is  repeating  the  warn- 
ing of  the  "Deserted  Village."  Do  not  these 
deeper  aspects  of  the  time  suggest  that  it  is  a 
preparatory,  preliminary  age,  to  which  the  Christian 
character  may  be  for  the  moment  ill  adjusted,  but 
which  is  prophetic  of  a  new  world  in  which  the 
Christian  character  may  be  an  effective  force? 
Nothing  could  be  more  contrary  to  the  facts  of 
social  evolution  than  to  assume,  with  Nietzsche, 
that  the  movement  of  civilization  is  proceeding 
from  morality  to  naturalism,  from  good  and  evil  to 
passion  and  force.  On  the  contrary,  the  process 
of  social  evolution  moves,  though  with  many  halts 
and  reversions,  toward  a  more  humanized  world,  and 
registers  not  only  the  descent,  but  also  the  ascent 
of  man.  Beneath  the  scum  and  eddies  which  are 
conspicuous  on  the  surface  of  the  time,  a  deeper 
current  of  thought  and  feeling  sets  toward  a  revival 
of  idealism,  and  the  stream  of  tendency  is  purified 
of  its  uncleanness  by  the  very  swiftness  with  which 
it  flows. 


1 66      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

If,  then,  it  may  be  not  unreasonably  believed  that 
the  Christian  character  is  applicable  to  the  modern 
world,  we  are  led  to  consider  in  some  detail  the 
special  qualities  of  this  ethical  type.  What  kind 
of  person  is  naturally  created  by  the  influence  of 
Jesus  Christ?  How  does  such  a  person  lead  his 
own  life,  and  how  does  he  conduct  himself  among 
his  fellow-men?  What  are  the  personal  conse- 
quences, and  what  are  the  social  consequences  of 
the  Christian  character?  It  is,  of  course,  impos- 
sible to  fence  off  from  each  other  these  two  fields 
of  ethics,  as  though  one  might  have,  first,  a  char- 
acter of  his  own  and  then  might  carry  over  that 
character  into  the  world  of  social  good.  All  mo- 
rality is  social  morality.  Ethics  is  a  sociological 
science.  The  moral  life  is  a  life  in  common. 
The  sense  of  obligation  is  a  sense  of  being  tied 
to  other  people.  Personal  character  does  not  grow 
in  a  vacuum,  but  in  the  soil  of  the  common  life 
and  the  atmosphere  of  the  social  world.  For 
convenience,  however,  it  is  possible  to  consider 
character,  first  in  its  own  inherent  traits,  and  later 
in  its  uses  as  an  instrument  of  social  good  —  to 
think  of  a  person  first  as  a  moral  being,  and  then 
as  a  moral  force.  What  sort  of  person,  then,  is 
the  natural  product  of  the  Christian  character  ? 
How  does  the  teaching  which  we  have  traced 
affect  and  mould  the  various  functions  of  person- 
ality ?  How  does  the  Christian  determine  his  duty, 
first,  in  the  concerns  of  his  body,  secondly,  in  the 
interests  of  his  mind,  and  finally,  in  the  affections 
and  desires  of  his  emotional  life  ? 


THE  PERSONAL  CONSEQUENCES       \6j 

The  ethics  of  the  body  has  seemed  to  many 
sincere  followers  of  Jesus  Christ  to  present  one 
of  the  most  perplexing  of  moral  problems.  They 
have  heard  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  an  unmistak- 
able note  of  asceticism,  summoning  them  to  physi- 
cal repression  and  sacrifice.  What,  they  ask,  are 
the  concerns  and  conveniences  of  the  body  com- 
pared with  the  welfare  of  the  soul  ?  What  shall 
it  profit  us  to  gain  all  else  and  lose  our  souls  ? 
Does  not  Jesus  command  us  to  cut  off  the  offend- 
ing hand,  to  pluck  out  the  sensual  eye?  Is  it  not 
better  to  enter  the  Kingdom  halt  and  lame  than 
with  a  sound  body  to  be  cast  into  hell  ?  Each  new 
wave  of  religious  exaltation  which  has  been  set  in 
motion  by  Christian  faith  has  borne  on  its  crest 
the  foam  of  this  ascetic  discipline.  The  call  to 
self-denial  came  to  a  world  dominated  by  a  Greek 
philosophy  of  self-culture  and  a  Roman  tradition 
of  worldliness ;  and  classic  morals  seem  pallid  and 
unsatisfying  to  those  who  were  touched  by  the 
passion  of  the  Cross.  The  tide  of  monasticism 
swept  over  Europe  and  bore  away  from  the  temp- 
tations of  the  flesh  the  choicest  of  those  who  heard 
the  call  of  the  spirit. 

"  She  heard  it,  the  victorious  West, 
In  crown  and  sword  arrayed  ! 
She  felt  the  void  which  mined  her  breast, 
She  shivered  and  obeyed. 
******** 

She  broke  her  flutes,  she  stopp'd  her  sports, 
Her  artists  could  not  please ; 


1 68       JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

She  tore  her  books,  she  shut  her  courts, 

She  fled  her  palaces  ; 

Lust  of  the  eye  and  pride  of  life 

They  left  it  all  behind, 

And  hurried,  torn  with  inward  strife, 

The  wilderness  to  find. 

Tears  wash'd  the  trouble  from  her  face  ! 

She  changed  into  a  child ! 

'Mid  weeds  and  wrecks  she  stood  —  a  place 

Of  ruin  —  but  she  smiled ! " * 

No  one  can  review  this  history  of  the  soul  in  its 
struggle  against  the  body  without  a  sense  of  ad- 
miration. The  supremacy  of  the  religious  senti- 
ment was  never  more  manifest  than  in  its  power  to 
dictate  bodily  sacrifices  and  rejoice  in  bodily  suffer- 
ings. Yet  the  final  judgment  of  history  can  but 
conclude  that  Christian  asceticism,  with  all  its  hero- 
ism, was  one  of  religion's  glorious  mistakes.  At 
the  very  time  when  the  world  most  needed  the 
Christian  character,  thousands  of  those  whose  mis- 
sion was  to  relieve  the  world  fled  from  the  world, 
and  in  the  caves  of  the  desert  and  the  cells  of  the 
monasteries  forgot  what  was  written  of  their  Mas- 
ter: "  He  saveth  others;  himself  he  cannot  save." 
Asceticism  was  not  a  solution,  but  an  evasion,  of  the 
ethics  of  the  body.  It  did  not  fight  the  battle  of 
life ;  it  fled  from  that  battle.  The  battle  had  to  go 
on,  and  the  great  working,  productive,  tempted 
multitude  had  to  fight  it  through ;  while  those  best 
equipped  to  win  the  battle  were  heroic  runaways. 

1  Matthew  Arnold,  "  Poems,"  1889.  "Obermann,  once  more," 
P-  237. 


THE  PERSONAL  CONSEQUENCES       1 69 

Nor  was  even  the  soul  delivered  from  the  body- 
by  this  flight.  The  more  rigidly  the  body  was 
repressed,  the  more  violently  it  turned  upon  its 
oppressor,  and  tortured  him  with  imaginary  sins. 
They  pursued  the  hermit  to  the  desert,  and  hid 
beneath  the  cowl  of  the  monk.  "  When  me  they 
fly,"  they  said,  with  Emerson,  "  I  am  the  wings." 
Self-denial  was  no  escape  from  self-consciousness ; 
and  behind  the  forms  of  sacrifice  lurked  the  spirit 
of  self-consideration  and  pride.  The  ethics  of  the 
body,  in  a  word,  offered  a  problem  which  must  be 
answered,  not  by  change  of  place,  but  by  change 
of  heart,  and  which  must  be  finally  answered  no- 
where else  than  in  that  place  where  the  body 
found  its  natural  duties  and  desires. 

This  is  precisely  the  view  of  the  body  which 
meets  us  when  we  pass  from  the  spirit  of  monasti- 
cism  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  It  is  like  passing 
from  an  anchorite's  cell,  solitary  in  a  sterile  desert, 
to  some  happy  scene  of  fields  and  homes,  and  the 
natural  vocations  of  the  common  life.  Jesus  does 
not  counsel  deliverance  from  the  body  by  retreat 
from  the  world.  He  finds  no  antinomy  between 
the  life  of  the  body  and  the  life  of  the  soul.  He 
does  not,  like  John  the  Baptist,  call  his  followers 
to  the  coarse  food  and  raiment  of  life  in  the  wilder- 
ness. On  the  contrary,  he  meets  human  lives  just 
where  they  are,  among  their  natural  incidents  of 
pleasure  and  pain,  temptation  and  joy,  social  re- 
sources and  private  needs.  Among  all  these  varied 
lives,  rich  and  poor,  saints  and  sinners,  he  goes 


170      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

his  way,  not  demanding  of  them  change  of  condi- 
tion, but  discerning  in  each  condition  its  significance 
and  service. 

One  of  the  most  striking  facts  of  the  ministry 
of  Jesus  is  the  fact  that,  for  the  most  part,  he 
left  people  in  the  same  vocation  where  he  found 
them.  He  bids  them  forsake  all  and  follow  him ; 
but  this  loyalty  involves  no  abandonment  of  their 
habitual  tasks.  His  first  disciples  were  fishermen 
washing  their  nets,  at  the  beginning  of  the  Gospel 
of  Matthew ;  and  they  were  fishermen,  still  washing 
their  nets,  at  the  end  of  the  Gospel  of  John.  Obe- 
dience to  their  Master  did  not  drive  them  to  the 
wilderness,  but  held  them  to  their  work.  They 
forsook  all  and  followed  him,  yet  the  circumstances 
of  their  lives  remained  just  what  they  were  before. 
Thus  it  happens  that  the  discipline  of  the  body, 
which  has  played  so  great  a  part  in  Christian  his- 
tory, holds  no  important  place  in  the  ethics  of 
Jesus.  The  temptations  which  he  regards  as  most 
alarming  are  of  a  more  subtle  kind.  He  has  more 
to  say  of  worldliness,  hypocrisy  and  care,  than 
of  the  sins  of  the  flesh.  When  the  tempter 
approached  his  own  life,  he  was,  it  is  written,  "  an 
hungered " ;  yet  the  temptation  to  make  stones 
into  bread  was  a  temptation,  not  of  hunger,  but  of 
power  and  self-display.  When  physical  asceticism 
is  demanded  by  him,  it  is  always  for  a  purpose 
behind  itself.  When  the  body  has  become  an  im- 
pediment to  the  soul,  then  the  hand  is  to  be  cut  off 
and  the  eye  plucked  out.     It  is  not  an  act  of  merit, 


THE  PERSONAL  CONSEQUENCES       171 

but  a  penal  discipline  applied  to  a  member  which 
offends.  When  the  young  man  is  withheld  from 
entering  life  by  his  "  great  possessions,"  Jesus  does 
not  hesitate  to  say  :  "  Sell  whatsoever  thou  hast .  .  . 
come,  and  follow  me."  *  The  teaching  of  Jesus 
is  not  that  of  bodily  mortification,  but  of  bodily 
sanctification.  The  body  is  an  instrument  of  the 
soul. 

At  this  point  meets  us  once  more  the  word 
which  made  its  mark  on  the  record  as  expressing 
the  moral  aim  of  Jesus.  The  Christian  character 
is  a  form  of  power.  As  righteousness  rises  into 
love,  and  love  discovers  itself  to  be  life,  there  issues 
a  new  quality  of  effectiveness,  vitality,  capacity  for 
service,  spiritual  force.  The  Christian  comes  to 
regard  himself,  not  as  a  detached  problem  to  be 
solved,  or  an  isolated  creation  with  its  own  laws  of 
conduct,  but  as  a  means,  a  member,  an  agent;  or, 
to  use  the  more  human  language  of  the  Gospels, 
as  a  servant  trusted  by  his  master,  a  porter  bidden 
to  watch,  a  steward  to  whom  much  is  committed, 
a  son  to  whom  the  father  confides  his  affairs. 
From  this  point  of  view  the  ethics  of  the  body 
gets  a  wholly  new  significance.  It  deals,  not 
with  an  enemy  of  character  to  be  subdued,  but 
with  an  instrument  of  character  to  be  used.  As- 
ceticism, as  the  New  Testament  commends  it,  is 
not  a  negative  term  of  denial  or  abandonment 
or  renunciation  ;  but  a  form  of  exercise,  a  way 
of  discipline,  a  kind  of   spiritual  athletics,  which 

1  Matt.  xix.  21 ;   Mark  x.  21 ;   Luke  xii.  33. 


172      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

trains  the  soul  for  effective  living.  "  Herein,"  says 
Paul,  "  do  I  exercise  myself  " ;  u  Exercise  thyself 
rather  unto  godliness  " ; *  and  Ignatius  Loyola  ac- 
curately describes  his  self-discipline  under  the  title 
of  "  Spiritual  Exercises." 2  As  the  Christian 
character  is  itself  a  form  of  power,  so  the  various 
organs  of  life  are  agents  of  this  power.  Whatever 
condition  or  action  of  the  body  sustains,  steadies, 
and  amplifies  moral  power,  is  right.  Whatever 
reduces  moral  effectiveness,  self-control,  poise  of 
judgment,  and  ethical  confidence,  is  wrong.  If  a 
conflict  of  interests  arises  between  the  body  and  the 
character,  if  the  flesh  instead  of  serving  the  spirit 
dominates  and  degrades  it,  then  there  must  be  im- 
mediate moral  surgery.  Cut  off  the  offending  mem- 
ber; pluck  it  out.  Surgery,  however,  is  not  for 
normal,  but  for  pathological,  conditions.  The  body 
is  not  made  to  be  amputated,  but  to  be  educated. 
There  is  a  mortifying  of  the  flesh,  but  there  is  also 
a  dignifying  of  the  flesh.  "  I  am  not  come  to 
destroy,  but  to  fulfil,"  might  have  been  said  by 
Jesus  of  the  body.  The  body  which  is  conformed 
to  his  ethics  is  not  a  despised  and  distrusted  mem- 
ber, but  full  of  serviceable  life.  Character,  to  be 
power,  must  have  its  machinery  in  full  command ; 
and  the  alertness,  responsiveness,  and  endurance 
of   the   body  are   the  mechanism  which   conveys 

1  Acts  xxiv.  16  ;    I  Tim.  iv.  7. 

aSo,  Dorner,  "Christian  Ethics,"  tr.  Mead,  1887,  p.  405 : 
"Ascetics  is  the  doctrine  of  the  purification,  preservation,  and 
strengthening  of  the  spiritual  life." 


THE  PERSONAL  CONSEQUENCES       I 73 

moral  power.  It  is  possible  to  be  good  and  to  do 
good  with  a  weak  and  shattered  body;  but  it  is 
much  easier  to  be  good  if  one's  body  be  sound, 
and  much  easier  to  do  good  if  one's  body  be  the 
ready  instrument  of  one's  will. 

This  teaching  of  Jesus  may  be  more  specifically 
illustrated  in  the  case  of  two  virtues  which  concern 
themselves  directly  with  the  ethics  of  the  body. 
The  passion  of  sex  has  been  controlled  by  chastity ; 
the  passion  of  drink  has  been  subdued  by  temper- 
ance; and  both  these  forms  of  bodily  discipline 
have  profoundly  affected  the  history  of  Christian- 
ity. Chastity  seemed  the  most  obvious  evidence 
that  the  spirit  had  gained  its  victory  over  the  flesh. 
Saintliness,  therefore,  knew  no  sex;  and  celibacy 
was  the  first  mark  of  the  higher  life.  Temperance, 
in  its  special  application  to  intoxicating  drink,  is 
the  modern  expression  of  the  same  asceticism.  As 
chastity  came  to  be  identified  with  celibacy,  so 
temperance  has  come  to  signify  abstinence.  Both 
celibacy  and  abstinence  assume  that  the  physical 
life  is  essentially  hostile  to  the  spirit,  and  must  be 
rigidly  repressed  and  subdued. 

There  are,  no  doubt,  many  circumstances  where 
this  ethical  antinomy  is  real.  The  sensuality  of 
Rome  under  Tiberius  and  Caligula  forced  the 
chastity  of  Christians  to  take  the  form  of  celi- 
bacy ;  the  circumstances  of  many  a  modern  life 
and  of  many  a  modern  country  permit  no  tem- 
perance which  is  not  abstinence.  A  celibate 
clergy   may   have   been    the    best    protest  which 


174      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

the  Christian  ministry  could  make  against  the 
corruptions  of  the  mediaeval  Church  ;  as  a  pledge 
of  abstinence  is  beyond  doubt,  for  many  persons 
to-day,  the  best  safeguard  of  self-control.  There 
are  those,  says  Jesus,  with  unflinching  sternness, 
"which  have  made  themselves  eunuchs  for  the 
kingdom  of  heaven's  sake." 1  "  If  meat  make 
my  brother  to  offend,"  says  Paul,  "I  will  eat  no 
flesh  while  the  world  standeth,  lest  I  make  my 
brother  to  offend."  a  Yet  to  identify  chastity  with 
celibacy,  or  temperance  with  abstinence,  is  to  for- 
get that  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  the  body  is  not 
an  end  in  itself,  but  a  means  to  character.  Chas- 
tity is  not  a  virtue  pertaining  to  one  condition  of 
life.  There  may  be  unchastity  within  the  marriage 
bond,  and  even  in  the  condition  of  celibacy. 
There  is,  on  the  other  hand,  no  purer  chastity  than 
in  the  union  of  chaste  lives.  Chastity  is  such 
maintenance  of  the  body  that  it  shall  be  the  will- 
ing and  effective  servant  of  the  Christian  char- 
acter; and  unchastity  is  the  domination  by  lust 
and  appetite  of  a  life  which  should  be  an  instru- 
ment of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  Celibacy  takes 
account  of  the  immediate  virtue  of  the  single  life. 
Chastity  contemplates  the  future  and  presents  to 
another  life,  for  whom  it  would  gladly  sacrifice 
itself,  an  unstained  body,  fit  to  be  an  offering  of 
love.  It  takes  account  of  one  who  is  as  yet  un- 
loved, and  of  others  who  are  as  yet  unborn.  The 
same  enlargement  of  definition  must  be  given  to 

i  Matt.  xix.  12.  2  i  Cor.  viii.  13. 


THE  PERSONAL  CONSEQUENCES       1 75 

temperance.  Under  many  conditions  of  life  tem- 
perance can  be  best  assured  through  abstinence ; 
yet  temperance  is  more  than  abstinence.  To  be 
temperate  is  not  to  escape  temptation,  but  to  hold 
the  physical  life  to  its  maximum  of  service.  Tem- 
perance tempers  the  body  as  the  artisan  tempers 
a  sword,  so  that  it  resists  and  reacts  without 
breaking.  Abstinence  may  contribute  to  temper- 
ance; but  temperance  is,  as  the  word  is  rightly 
rendered  in  the  Revised  Version  of  the  New 
Testament,  the  capacity  for  self-control.1 

Who,  then,  is  the  Christian  in  the  concerns  of 
his  body?  He  is  not  to  be  found  in  any  single 
condition  of  life.  The  celibate  may  be  unchaste 
in  desire;  the  abstinent  may  be  intemperate  in 
speech.  The  Christian  use  of  the  body  is  its  main- 
tenance as  the  mechanism  of  the  spirit.  Chastity 
and  temperance  are  not  forms  of  contempt  of  the 
body,  but  forms  of  control  of  the  body.  The  body 
is  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister.  Its 
health,  composure,  restraint,  self-mastery,  are  con- 
ditions of  power.  Even  its  ills  may  contribute  to 
patience,  humility,  and  peace.  Bodily  passions 
which  obstruct  ease  of  moral  movement  are  to  be 
unhesitatingly  repressed.  The  Christian  does  not 
shrink  from  moral  surgery.  The  healthy  body  is, 
however,  an  agent  of  the  healthy  soul,  and  is  nor- 
mally utilized,  not  when  it  is  amputated,  but  when 
it  is  dedicated  to  the  Christian  character. 

1  iyKpareia,  2  Peter  i.  6  :  "  Add  to  your  knowledge  .  .  .  self- 
control."     So  Acts  xxiv.  25  ;  Gal.  v.  23. 


I76      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

When  we  turn  from  the  ethics  of  the  body  to  the 
ethics  of  the  mind,  we  meet  in  Christian  history  a 
different  situation.  While  the  body  has  been  for 
the  most  part  regarded  as  a  hostile  force  threat- 
ening the  Christian  character,  the  mind,  on  the 
contrary,  has  often  been  accepted  as  the  special 
organ  of  Christian  discipleship.  From  this  point 
of  view  the  acceptance  of  Christian  dogma  is  the 
first  of  Christian  duties,  and  intellectual  doubt 
the  most  deadly  of  sins.  At  times  the  ethics  of  the 
mind  has  appeared  to  prescribe  as  Christian  duty 
a  restriction  of  thought ;  at  other  times  an  adjust- 
ment of  thought  to  the  standards  of  the  Church ; 
at  still  other  times  an  attack  on  one  form  of  thought 
called  science,  by  another  form  of  thought  called 
religion.  All  these  limitations  and  controversies 
have  proceeded  from  the  assumption  that  religion 
is  a  way  of  thinking,  a  conclusion  of  the  reason, 
a  state  of  opinion,  a  consent  to  proof. 

The  first  important  heresy  in  Christian  history 
was  a  consequence  of  this  intellectual  interpretation 
of  Christianity.  Gnosticism  regarded  Christian 
faith  as  a  form  of  knowledge,  a  chapter  in  the 
history  of  philosophy,  an  esoteric  doctrine  to  be  in- 
terpreted by  adepts  alone.  What  was  at  first  heresy 
has  often  become  orthodoxy ;  and  many  a  definition 
and  persecution,  when  not  directed  against  Gnos- 
tics, has  itself  expressed  the  spirit  of  Gnosticism. 
To  regard  knowledge  as  the  essence  of  faith,  to 
affirm  with  Hegel,  the  prince  of  Gnostics,  that 
"religion  is  a  knowledge  reached  by  finite  spirit 


THE  PERSONAL  CONSEQUENCES       I JJ 

of  its  real  nature  as  infinite  spirit,"  is  to  close  the 
door  of  the  inner  kingdom  on  all  who  do  not  hold 
its  key  of  speculative  truth.  "  For  much  of  the 
Agnosticism  of  the  age,"  a  great  teacher  has  re- 
marked, "  the  Gnosticism  of  theologians  is  undeni- 
ably responsible." 1 

These  heresies  and  orthodoxies  of  Christian 
history  are,  it  must  be  recognized,  encouraged  by 
one  aspect  of  the  Gospels  which  is  often  over- 
looked. Whatever  else  may  be  found  in  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus,  it  certainly  exhibits  an  extraordinary 
quality  of  intellectual  elevation  and  insight,  which 
easily  tempt  the  speculative  mind  to  believe  that 
they  are  the  supreme  elements  of  the  Gospel ;  and 
it  is  not  surprising  that  the  philosophers  have 
found  material  for  elaboration  in  the  deep  sayings 
of  Jesus  concerning  both  God  and  man.  His  in- 
tellectual mastery  would  have  given  him  a  place 
among  the  great  idealists,  even  if  he  had  failed  to 
establish  his  authority  in  the  ways  of  duty  and 
faith. 

When,  however,  one  examines  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  in  its  application  to  the  mind,  it  becomes  ob- 
vious that  nothing  could  be  more  remote  from  the 
spirit  of  his  ethics  than  the  spirit  of  Gnosticism. 
Jesus  is  neither  a  philosopher  unfolding  his  sys- 
tem nor  a  theologian  enforcing  his  creed.  Re- 
ligion is  to  him,  not  a  form  of  thought,  but  a  way 
of  life.  He  approaches  the  ethics  of  the  mind  at 
a  much  earlier  and  a  much  more  critical  point  than 

i  Martineau,  "  Study  of  Religion,"  1888,  I,  xi. 


I78      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

that  of  intellectual  conformity.  He  considers  not 
so  much  the  morality  of  opinions  as  the  morality 
which  creates  opinions,  the  motives  of  reasoning, 
the  moral  perspective  in  which  the  mind  is  set, 
the  attitude  of  the  thinker  toward  truth.  The 
intellectual  sins  which  appear  to  Jesus  most  alarm- 
ing are  not  those  of  imperfect  faith  or  hesitating 
doubt.  He  does  not  reject  Thomas  because  of  his 
scepticism,  or  rebuke  the  disciples  who  confess 
their  unbelief.  Intellectual  immorality,  to  him, 
begins,  not  in  incorrect  opinions,  but  in  irreverence, 
unteachableness,  satiety  of  mind;  and  intellectual 
morality  gets  entrance  to  a  mind  when  it  is  open 
to  the  truth,  childlike  and  unperverted,  unafflicted 
by  formal  philosophy  or  Gnostic  self-sufficiency. 
There  are,  in  short,  antecedent  ethical  conditions 
which  direct  the  mind  toward  truth.  Behind  Chris- 
tian truth  lies  the  Christian  character.  The  bless- 
ing of  the  pure  in  heart  is  not  in  their  purity  alone, 
but  in  the  fact  that  their  purity  permits  them  to 
see  God.  They  are  blessed,  not  only  with  moral 
simplicity,  but  with  intellectual  discernment. 

Here  is  an  order  of  procedure  precisely  the 
reverse  of  that  which  the  Gnostic  proposes.  He 
that  knoweth  the  doctrine,  says  an  intellectual 
Christianity,  will  do  the  will.  The  fourth  Gospel, 
on  the  other  hand,  finds  in  obedience  the  path  to 
knowledge :  "  If  any  man  will  do  his  will,  he  shall 
know  of  the  doctrine."  Sound  knowledge  and 
straight  thinking  issue  from  moral  loyalty;  the 
flippant  or  reckless  mind  lacks  the  ethical  condi- 


THE  PERSONAL  CONSEQUENCES       1 79 

tions  of  intellectual  achievement.  "  Let  knowledge 
grow  from  more  to  more,"  says  Tennyson,  "  but 
more  of  reverence  in  us  dwell."  Jesus  goes  farther, 
and  affirms  that  the  higher  knowledge  will  not  grow 
from  more  to  more,  unless  an  antecedent  reverence 
in  us  dwell.  It  is  not  an  accident  that  in  the  great 
summary  of  the  fourth  Gospel  Jesus  sets  the  truth 
between  the  way  and  the  life.  The  way  of  Jesus 
leads  to  his  truth,  and  the  truth  becomes  thus,  not  a 
doctrine  merely,  but  a  life. 

Who,  then,  is  the  Christian  thinker  ?  He  is  not 
to  be  recognized  by  his  opinions  alone.  There 
may  be  immorality  in  conformity  as  well  as  in 
heresy,  and  more  faith  in  honest  doubt  than  in 
half  the  creeds.  Nor  is  the  Christian  thinker  en- 
dowed with  a  special  kind  of  knowledge,  which  may 
be  contrasted  with  the  scientific  habit  of  mind. 
All  paths  to  truth  are  sacred  to  the  Christian 
thinker.  Good  science  is  good  theology.  The  only 
issue  between  science  and  faith  is  between  faithless 
science  and  unscientific  faith.  What  distinguishes 
the  Christian  thinker  is  the  ethical  background  of 
his  reasoning.  He  is  reverent,  teachable,  self- 
controlled,  pure  in  heart.  "  God  desireth,"  says 
the  Psalmist,  "  truth  in  the  inward  parts ; "  and  it  is 
in  the  inward  parts  that  a  Christian  thinker  equips 
himself  with  the  desire  for  truth.  "  Thou  shalt  love 
the  Lord  thy  God,"  quotes  Jesus  from  the  earlier 
law,  not  with  thy  heart  alone,  but  "  with  thy  mind." 
The  Christian  thinker  makes  his  mind  an  organ 
of  sympathy,  appreciativeness,  love.     His  will  tc 


l80      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

do  the  will  enriches  his  knowledge.  His  purity  of 
heart  makes  him  see.  His  Christian  character  has 
its  consequence  in  his  Christian  creed. 

To  the  ethics  of  the  body  and  the  mind  there  is 
added  in  the  Christian  character  the  ethics  of  the 
emotional  life ;  and  here  the  contrasts  of  opinion 
are  much  more  confusing.  To  many  minds  the 
emotions  appear  to  give  to  life  all  its  richness, 
color,  and  charm;  to  many  other  minds  feeling 
seems  an  intrusive  and  perilous  element  of  experi- 
ence, which  is  likely  to  mislead  the  reason  and 
to  enervate  the  will.  The  aesthetic  temperament 
finds  in  emotional  expression  an  ultimate  satisfac- 
tion. Art  for  art's  sake  is  its  maxim.  Beauty  is 
its  own  excuse  for  being.  Morality  is  an  inter- 
loper when  it  invades  the  sphere  of  the  beautiful. 
To  the  ethical  temperament,  on  the  other  hand,  this 
delight  in  the  sensuous,  the  harmonious,  the  artistic, 
appears  to  weaken  moral  fibre,  and  to  threaten  the 
world  with  a  new  wave  of  heathenism. 

The  same  conflict  of  opinion  is  met  in  Christian 
teaching.  To  great  numbers  of  devout  believers, 
the  only  adequate  expression  of  the  religious  senti- 
ment seems  offered  by  the  feelings.  "  The  measure 
of  knowledge,"  they  repeat,  with  Schleiermacher, 
"  is  not  the  measure  of  piety.  .  .  .  Your  feeling,  in 
so  far  as  it  expresses  the  being  and  life  common  to 
you  and  to  the  universe,  is  your  religion.  .  .  . 
There  is  no  feeling  which  is  not  devout,  unless  it 
indicates  some  diseased  and  impaired  condition."  1 

1  Sammtl.  Werke,  "Zur  Theologie,"  I,  1843,  ss.  184  ff. 


THE  PERSONAL  CONSEQUENCES       l8l 

This  faith  of  the  mystic  lifts  him  above  reasoning, 
even  above  action,  into  the  higher  region  of  passive 
or  ecstatic  communication  with  the  Divine.  It  is 
the  religion  of  the  revivalist,  with  its  emotional 
expressions  and  ejaculatory  faith  ;  it  is  the  religion 
of  music,  of  color,  of  processions,  of  art.  In  all 
such  forms  of  piety  feeling  becomes  the  main  chan- 
nel of  revelation.  "  To  seek  life  and  to  find  it  in 
immediate  feeling  —  that  is  religion." 

Nothing,  on  the  other  hand,  is  more  repelling  to 
many  thoughtful  minds  than  this  religion  of  feel- 
ing. It  appears  unbalanced,  vague,  delusive,  ex- 
travagant. The  mystic  mistakes  sensual  raptures 
for  Divine  communion.  The  revivalist  excites  to 
a  remorse  or  joy  which  satisfy  themselves  in  utter- 
ance and  make  no  mark  on  character.  The  wor- 
shipper is  stirred  to  vague  emotions  by  beauty  of 
sound  or  sight,  but  this  aesthetic  delight  is  often 
an  unmoral  and  sometimes  a  demoralizing  joy. 
There  is,  as  a  distinguished  theologian  has  said, 
"an  enormous  monotony"  in  mysticism.  Its  ex- 
periences "  have  no  history,"  but  are  immediate 
and  return  upon  themselves ;  and  their  differences 
are  only  those  of  intensity  of  feeling.1 

What  is  it  which  gives  this  impression  of  insta- 
bility to  the  emotional  life  ?  Why  is  it  that  the 
feelings  may  become  either  the  organ  of  the  high- 
est good,  or  the  source  of  the  most  insidious  evil  ? 
How  may  one  trust  himself  to  his  emotions  without 

1  W.  Herrmann,  "Der  Verkehr  dcs  Christen  mit  Gott,"  1886, 
ss.  12  ff. 


1 82      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

falling  a  victim  to  their  treachery  or  deceit  ?  The 
answer  to  these  questions  is  plain  when  one  con- 
siders the  genesis  of  emotions.  Feeling  is  not  a 
self-originated  or  isolated  function.  It  refers  itself 
to  some  antecedent  suggestion,  either  of  the  body 
or  the  mind.  An  e-motion  is  a  motion  from.  It 
is  a  pleasure  or  a  pain  emerging  from  an  act  or 
thought.  In  itself  it  is  spontaneous,  unreflecting, 
immediate;  but  it  assumes  an  intention  to  be 
achieved,  a  desire  to  be  satisfied,  an  adjustment  of 
body  to  environment  or  of  mind  to  fact.  Feeling, 
therefore,  has  in  itself  no  moral  value.  Strictly 
speaking,  there  is  no  ethics  of  the  emotions. 
The  emotions  are  corollaries  to  be  drawn,  rather 
than  problems  to  be  solved.  They  are  the  wave 
which  leaps  up  in  light  and  color  on  the  crest  of 
the  heaving  ocean.  If  the  sea  is  deeply  stirred, 
its  crest  will  inevitably  carry  the  foam  of  feeling ; 
if  the  sea  is  sluggish  and  flat,  the  white-caps  of 
emotion  cannot  be  induced  to  break.  The  ethics 
of  emotion,  then,  is  to  be  sought,  not  in  the  emo- 
tion itself,  but  in  the  source  from  which  it  pro- 
ceeds. Feelings  which  are  apparently  akin  may 
be,  ethically,  strangers  to  each  other.  The  sense 
of  the  beautiful  may  be  either  a  spiritualizing  and 
refining  grace,  or  a  degrading  and  sensual  self- 
indulgence.  Religious  mysticism  may  express  it- 
self either  in  exalted  vision  or  in  fleshly  ecstasies. 
Even  the  supreme  emotion  of  love,  whether  to  God 
or  to  man,  may  represent  loyalty,  sacrifice,  and 
service,  or  may  exhaust  itself  in  ineffective  senti- 


THE  PERSONAL  CONSEQUENCES       1 83 

mentalism  and  pious  rapture.1  The  ethics  of  the 
emotions  is  concerned,  therefore,  not  so  much 
with  their  form  or  intensity,  as  with  their  origin 
and  background.  Is  the  feeling  of  the  beautiful 
detached  from  this  moral  background,  or  does  it 
stand  out  against  this  background  as  the  beauty 
of  holiness  ?  Does  the  mystic's  vision  of  God  lift 
him  so  high  above  the  plains  of  duty  that  he  loses 
sight  of  its  prosaic  details,  or  does  this  vision  give 
him  a  clearer  and  broader  view  of  duty,  and  verify 
the  promise  that  the  pure  in  heart  shall  see  God  ? 
Is  Christian  love  an  isolated  passion,  which  may 
utter  itself  without  committing  conduct  to  a  moral 
pledge ;  or  does  love  presuppose  righteousness,  as 
a  flower  involves  its  stalk  ? 

No  aspect  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  is  more  in- 
structive for  the  present  age  than  his  declaration 

1  One  of  the  most  instructive  transitions  in  the  history  of  philos- 
ophy is  that  of  Schleiermacher,  from  his  original  confidence  in  feel- 
ing as  altogether  sacred,  to  the  more  restrained  teaching  of  his 
maturer  years,  where  the  religious  feeling  becomes  specific,  contem- 
plative, and  humbling.  "  Reden  fiber  die  Religion,"  1843,  s.  264  : 
"The  true  nature  of  religion  is  not  one  or  another  form  of  thought, 
but  immediate  consciousness  of  Deity.  ...  In  the  midst  of  time  to 
be  one  with  the  Infinite  and  in  every  instant  to  be  eternal,  that  is 
the  immortality  of  religion."  "Christliche  Glaube,"  1861,  I,  15, 
167  :  "  In  all  expressions  of  religion  the  common  element,  which 
distinguishes  religion  from  other  feelings  and  make  the  essence 
of  piety  is  this  —  that  we  are  conscious  of  an  absolute  dependence,  or 
in  other  words,  of  relation  with  God.  .  .  .  This  consciousness  of 
absolute  dependence  [is]  the  only  way  in  which  the  finite  being  and 
the  infinite  God  can  be  consciously  one."  (Compare  Unitarian 
Review,  August  and  September,  1880,  F.  G.  Peabody,  "The  History 
of  the  Psychology  of  Religion.") 


184      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

that  Christian  emotion  has  worth  only  as  a  con- 
sequence of  the  Christian  character.  The  detach- 
ment of  feeling  from  obligation,  the  satisfaction  of 
the  religious  sentiment  with  aesthetic  expression, 
even  the  scorn  of  rigid  ethics  among  the  circum- 
stances of  the  modern  world  —  all  these  perversions 
of  Christian  faith  still  afflict  the  Christian  church. 
When  a  negro  convert  in  a  Southern  prayer-meet- 
ing shouts,  "  Fse  done  broke  all  de  commandments, 
but  praise  de  Lord,  I'se  got  my  religion,"  it  seems 
a  grotesque  separation  of  faith  from  morals  ;  but  it 
is,  in  fact,  not  more  ludicrous,  and  it  is  much  less 
shameless,  than  the  practices  which,  to  many  cul- 
tivated people,  appear  consistent  with  Christian 
discipleship  and  Christian  worship.  How  does  it 
happen  that  ostentatious  prodigality,  habitual  gam- 
bling, and  looseness  in  marriage  occur,  not  only 
among  those  who  have  abandoned  religious  obliga- 
tions, but  among  those  to  whom  religious  conformity 
is  a  part  of  good  manners  and  good  taste  ?  It  is  be- 
cause religion  is  regarded,  not  as  a  moral  law,  but 
as  a  comforting  emotion.  The  commandments 
may  be  broken,  while  the  solace  of  religion  is  re- 
tained. Such  is  the  travesty  of  religion,  when  it 
becomes  aesthetic  instead  of  ethical  It  is  well  to  be 
stirred  by  religious  feeling,  but,  as  Phillips  Brooks 
once  remarked,  "  you  must  ask  of  its  parentage  and 
its  offspring."  l 

The  same  lesson  concerning  the  ethics  of  emotion 

K'The  Influence  of  Jesus,"  1879,  Lect.  Ill,  "The  Influence 
of  Jesus  on  the  Emotional  Life  of  Man." 


THE  PERSONAL  CONSEQUENCES       1 85 

is  taught  on  a  larger  scale,  and  in  a  more  positive 
form,  by  a  great  historical  transition,  of  which  this 
looseness  of  contemporary  morals  is  one  expression. 
Among  the  creative  forces  of  religion  in  America, 
the  most  important  was  the  spirit  of  Puritanism. 
It  subdued  a  wilderness,  established  popular  gov- 
ernment, bred  a  learned  ministry,  and  set  religion 
at  the  centre  of  the  State.  Its  morals,  however, 
were  severe;  its  judgments  harsh;  its  recoil  from 
the  laxity  of  English  customs  made  it  hostile  to 
mirth  and  play.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore, 
that  a  reaction  has  come,  and  that  one  hears  much 
ridicule  of  the  spirit  of  Puritanism.  Instead  of 
the  earlier  rigidity  we  have  the  new  tolerance; 
instead  of  unlovely  morals,  a  new  appreciation  of 
the  beautiful ;  instead  of  self -discipline,  self-culture 
and  delight  in  life.  Is  this  transition  a  moral  gain 
or  a  moral  loss  ?  That  must  depend  on  the  rela- 
tion between  the  new  aestheticism  and  the  earlier 
Puritanism.  If  what  we  are  witnessing  means 
simply  a  reaction  from  sternness  to  license,  from 
hardness  to  softness,  as  Puritanism  was  itself  a 
reaction  from  the  laxity  of  its  own  age,  then  it  is 
simply  one  more  swing  of  the  pendulum  of  opinion 
which  merely  registers  the  course  of  time.  To  be 
a  moral  gain,  these  generous  instincts  of  a  kindlier 
world  must  be,  not  an  outgrowing  of  Puritanism, 
but  a  growth  out  of  Puritanism ;  not  a  revolution, 
but  an  evolution  ;  not  the  swing  of  a  pendulum,  but 
the  blooming  of  a  flower ;  not  the  withering  of  the 
Puritan  conscience,  but  the  unfolding  of  it  under 


1 86      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

a  more  genial  sun.  First  the  sternness  of  duty- 
doing,  then,  and  then  only,  the  fairer  traits  of 
attractiveness  and  charm  ;  first  the  Puritan  self- 
discipline,  and  then  an  age  of  sweetness  and  light, 
—  this  is  the  only  order  of  a  sound  moral  growth. 
Puritanism  was  like  a  bulb,  brought  —  as  Puritan- 
ism was  brought  —  from  Holland,  of  rough  ex- 
terior and  without  apparent  beauty  or  grace,  but 
which,  set  in  a  Southern  window,  unfolds  into  a 
flower  which  a  Puritan  might  have  thought  too 
fair.  "  Seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His 
righteousness,"  said  Jesus,  "  and  all  these  things 
shall  be  added  unto  you."  To  seek  righteousness 
first  is  to  find  in  other  things  the  natural  flower 
of  the  expansion  of  righteousness;  to  seek  other 
things  first  is  to  attempt  the  impossible  task  of 
developing  a  moral  creed  from  the  seeds  of  sen- 
sualism, self-indulgence,  and  scorn. 

Who,  then,  is  the  Christian  in  his  emotional 
life  ?  He  is  not  to  be  recognized  by  his  ecstatic 
utterances  or  turbulent  repentances  or  demonstra- 
tions of  passionate  affection  for  a  visualized  Christ. 
These  states  of  feeling  may  be  the  best  expression 
of  the  Christian  character,  or  may,  on  the  other 
hand,  have  no  moral  significance.  Christian  emo- 
tion is  an  instrument  of  Christian  consecration. 
The  Christian  has  his  exalted  moments  of  emotional 
communion  with  God,  like  those  in  which  Jesus 
said,  "  All  things  have  been  delivered  unto  me  by 
my  Father  "  ;  but  these  mounts  of  vision  rise  out 
of  valleys  of  common  duty-doing,  as  when  Jesus, 


THE  PERSONAL  CONSEQUENCES       1 87 

in  the  same  passage,  said  to  the  weary  and  heavy- 
laden,  u  I  will  give  you  rest."  The  Christian,  like 
his  Master,  has  his  mount  of  transfigured  feel- 
ing; but  at  its  foot  waits  the  life  of  service,  as 
Jesus  went  down  to  heal  the  demoniac  boy.  The 
Christian  feels  the  passion  of  indignation,  as  when 
Jesus  drove  the  traders  from  the  Temple ;  but 
his  indignation  is  impersonal,  unselfish,  "a  zeal 
for  the  Father's  house."  The  Christian  is  touched 
by  the  feeling  of  compassion ;  but  it  is  a  con- 
scientious and  continuous  compassion,  as  when  the 
Samaritan  set  the  sufferer  on  his  own  beast  and 
took  care  of  him.  Behind  Christian  feeling  stands 
Christian  thoughtf  ulness ;  behind  Christian  passion, 
power  in  reserve.  The  emotions  are  not  super- 
ficial agitations  of  nervous  excitement,  like  little 
waves  tossed  up  by  a  passing  steamer  with  its 
churning  wheels;  they  are  the  crests  that  lift 
themselves  when  the  depths  of  nature  are  stirred, 
and  the  whole  character  is  lifted,  like  a  heaving 
roller,  to  the  surface  of  life. 

If,  then,  the  Christian  character  has  these  per- 
sonal consequences  in  the  affairs  of  the  body,  the 
mind,  and  the  emotions,  what  is  the  total  effect 
which  is  thus  produced  ?  What  is  the  moral  type 
which  naturally  issues  as  the  product  of  the  Chris- 
tian character?  What  kind  of  person  normally 
represents  the  influence  of  Jesus  Christ?  What 
are  the  distinctive  marks  by  which  we  recognize 
the  Christian,  in  his  moral  bearing,  attitude,  and 
influence  ? 


1 88      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

The  first  of  these  distinguishing  traits  of  char- 
acter may  be  described  as  Poise.  The  body,  the 
mind,  and  the  emotions,  being  the  instruments  of 
moral  intention,  are  held  in  balance,  and  perform 
their  functions  without  excess.  It  is  this  trait 
which  makes  it  so  difficult  to  define  or  classify  the 
character  of  Jesus  himself.  He  is  in  his  physical 
life  neither  ascetic  nor  self-indulgent ;  in  his  intel- 
lectual life  neither  scholar  nor  peasant ;  in  his  emo- 
tional life  neither  prosaic  nor  visionary.  The 
inclinations  which  distinguish  temperaments  are 
held  in  poise  by  him.  He  meets  the  scholars  with 
the  learning  of  their  law,  but  he  welcomes  the 
spontaneity  of  the  little  child;  he  is  stirred  by 
deep  emotions,  yet  he  is  calm  when  others  are 
most  moved.  It  is  the  same  with  the  Christian 
character.  Many  a  devoted  enthusiast  has  com- 
mitted himself  to  the  imitation  of  Christ,  and  has 
seemed  to  find  ample  support  in  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  for  some  moral  protest  or  exhortation,  but  has 
precisely  missed  that  poise  of  character  which 
made  it  possible  for  Jesus  to  be  a  revolutionary 
innovator  without  eccentricity,  extravagance,  or  bit- 
terness. The  Christian  character  is  neither  excited 
nor  temporizing;  it  is  balanced  and  sound.  The 
duties  of  body,  mind,  and  feeling,  being  determined 
by  their  contribution  to  moral  power,  get  steadi- 
ness and  poise. 

From  this  trait  follows  the  second  mark  of  the 
Christian  character,  which  is  known  in  the  New 
Testament  as  Simplicity.      "  In  simplicity,"  says 


THE  PERSONAL  CONSEQUENCES       1 89 

Paul,  "  we  have  had  our  conversation."  !  "I  fear 
lest  .  .  .  your  minds  should  be  corrupted  from  the 
simplicity  that  is  in  Christ."  2  Simplicity,  however, 
is  not  so  simple  a  quality  as  the  word  may  seem  to 
imply.  It  is  not  attained  by  elimination  of  desire. 
Life  is  not  simplified  by  becoming  barren.  Sim- 
plicity means,  not  meagreness,  but  singleness ;  the 
simplifying,  not  of  the  content  of  life,  but  of  the 
direction  of  life.  It  is  better  known  as  single- 
mindedness,  the  uncomplicated  directness  of  a  life 
which  moves  toward  a  thoroughly  determined  end. 
In  the  Revised  Version  the  saying  of  Paul  reads, 
not  "  The  simplicity  that  is  in  Christ,"  but  "  The 
simplicity  that  is  toward  Christ."  The  movement 
of  a  life  toward  Christ  simplifies  character  by  giv- 
ing it  a  way  to  go.  The  Christian  character  has 
poise,  yet  it  is  not  the  poise  of  rest,  but  the  poise  of 
motion ;  as  a  bird,  which  seems  to  lie  inactive  on 
the  air,  is  borne  straight  to  its  aim  by  the  perfect 
balance  of  its  wings.  "  If  therefore  thine  eye  be 
single,"  says  Jesus,  "  thy  whole  body  shall  be  full  of 
light."  3  Single-mindedness  throws  its  light  on  the 
path  of  life,  and  the  crooked  problems  of  experience 
become  illuminated  and  simplified.  What  compli- 
cates life  is  its  divided  aim,  its  double  standard,  its 
uncertainty  of  direction.  When  it  turns  with  un- 
deviating  directness  toward  Christ,  then  simplicity 
meets  it  on  the  way. 

To  the  poise  and  single-mindedness  which  mark 
the  Christian  character,  there  is  added  a  third  trait, 

1  2  Cor.  i.  12.  2  2  Cor.  xi.  3.  8  Matt.  vi.  22. 


190      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

which,  as  exhibited  by  Jesus  himself,  deeply  im- 
pressed his  disciples.  It  is  what  the  Gospels,  with 
constant  reiteration,  describe  as  Peace.  "  To  guide 
our  feet  into  the  way  of  peace,"1  prophesied  Zacha- 
rias  of  John  the  Baptist ;  the  angels  sang  at  Beth- 
lehem :  "  Glory  to  God  .  .  .  and  on  earth  peace ;"  2 
and  Jesus  himself  at  the  beginning  of  his  ministry 
promises  to  the  weary  and  heavy-laden  the  gift  of 
rest.  It  was  a  strange  prophecy,  strangely  ful- 
filled ;  for  the  life  of  Jesus  was  as  unrestf ul  as  a 
career  could  be,  and  those  who  came  to  him  for 
peace  were  confronted  by  his  other  words,  "  Sup- 
pose ye  that  I  am  come  to  give  peace  on  earth  ?  I 
tell  you,  Nay ;  but  rather  division  "  ;  3  "  1  came  not 
to  send  peace,  but  a  sword."  4  Yet  it  remained  true 
that  the  final  impression  left  by  the  influence  of 
Jesus  upon  his  friends  was  that  of  peacef ulness ; 
and  his  last  promise,  as  enshrined  in  the  fourth 
Gospel,  was  that  this  gift  should  be  their  perma- 
nent possession.  "  Peace  I  leave'  with  you,  my 
peace  I  give  unto  you";  "These  things  have  I 
spoken  unto  you,  that  in  me  ye  might  have  peace."5 
When  the  Apostle  Paul  recounted  the  blessings  of 
his  new  faith,  none  was  more  constantly  in  his  mind 
than  the  gift  of  peace,  "from  God  our  Father,  and 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  6    "  The  fruit  of  the  spirit," 

1  Luke  i.  79.  *  Matt.  x.  34. 

2  Luke  ii.  14.  6  John  xiv.  27,  xvi.  33. 
8  Luke  xii.  51. 

6  Rom.  i.  7;   1  Cor.  i.  3 ;  2  Cor.  i.  2;  Gal.  i.  3;  Eph.  i.  2; 
Phil.  i.  2. 


THE  PERSONAL  CONSEQUENCES       191 

he  says,  "is  love,  joy,  peace";1  "Christ  came 
and  preached  peace  to  you  which  were  afar  off, 
and  to  them  that  were  nigh " ;  2  "  Now  the  Lord 
of  peace  himself  give  you  peace  always  by  all 
means."3 

What  was  this  peace  of  Jesus,  this  restfulness  of 
spirit,  which  so  impressed  those  who  had  been 
with  him  that  Peter,  in  commending  the  new  faith, 
describes  it  as  "  preaching  peace  by  Jesus  Christ  "?* 
Certainly  it  was  not  a  peace  to  be  attained  through 
escape  from  conflict  or  retreat  from  trouble  or 
freedom  from  misapprehension.  Never  was  a  life 
more  continuously  involved  than  that  of  Jesus  in 
incidents  which  would  seem  destructive  of  peace. 
The  peace  of  Jesus  Christ  is,  however,  not  created 
by  external  events.  It  is  a  freedom  from  inward 
conflict,  the  peace  of  single-mindedness  and  poise, 
the  tranquillity  of  a  character  at  one  with  itself. 
Jesus  knew  what  it  was  that  was  given  him  to  do ; 
and  his  meat  and  drink  were  to  accomplish  it.  "  I 
do  not  mine  own  will,"  he  says,  "  but  the  will  of 
the  Father  that  sent  me."  Here  was  the  secret 
of  peace.  He  was  not  primarily  concerned  with 
the  praise  or  blame  that  met  him  on  the  way. 
These  were  the  scenery  of  light  and  shadow  which 
he  passed.  His  task  was  to  finish  the  work  which 
was  given  him  to  do,  and  this  distinctness  of  desire 
gave  peace  of  mind.  Misunderstanding  might 
environ   him,  friends   might   doubt   him,  enemies 

1  Gal.  v.  22.  2  Eph.  ii.  17.  3  2  Thess.  iii.  16. 

4  Acts  x.  36;  so  Eph.  ii.  14,  17;  Col.  i.  20. 


192      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

might  threaten  him;  but  in  the  midst  of  these 
storms  he  is  at  peace.  When  he  was  gone,  his 
friends  remembered  what  he  said :  "  In  the  world 
ye  must  have  tribulation ;  "  but  they  also  remem- 
bered that  he  said :  "Peace  I  leave  with  you."  "  I 
have  overcome  the  world.  "  * 

It  is  the  same  with  those  rare  characters  which 
represent  most  perfectly  the  influence  of  Jesus 
Christ.  They  are  not  the  most  sheltered  of  lives, 
retreating  from  the  world  into  the  peace  of  inactiv- 
ity or  stagnation.  Peacefulness  is  not  inconsistent 
with  activity.  The  opposite  of  rest  is  not  work, 
but  restlessness ;  and  the  source  of  peace  is  not 
inaction,  but  single-mindedness.  This  is  the  life  of 
undistracted  service,  which  Matthew  Arnold  has 
described  as  one  of  "  toil,  unsevered  from  tranquil- 
lity." Poise  of  character  gives  simplicity,  and 
simplicity  gives  peace.  Such  persons  trudge  along 
the  highway  of  life,  not  looking  here  and  there  for 
a  peaceful  spot  by  the  wayside,  but  travelling  tow- 
ard home,  and  going,  though  wearily,  yet  peace- 
fully, with  a  song  upon  their  lips.  They  steer  their 
course  across  the  ocean  of  life,  not  as  those  who 
are  lost  in  the  vastness  of  the  Universe,  and  know 
not  whither  they  are  bound,  but  as  those  whose 
compass  points  true,  and  who  can  steady  their 
course  with  peaceful  hearts  because  they  are  sure 
of  their  course  and  their  port. 

Poise,  simplicity,  peace  —  all  these  mark  the 
character  which  issues  from  the  teaching  of  Jesus ; 

1  John  xiv.  27,  xvi.  33. 


THE  PERSONAL  CONSEQUENCES       I 93 

but  when  his  followers  wished  to  sum  up  in  a  single 
phrase  the  most  dominant  aspect  of  this  moral 
creation,  and  the  special  blessing  which  it  received 
from  him,  they  turned  to  one  further  word,  which 
soon  became  the  accepted  form  of  benediction  in 
his  name.  It  was  the  word  Grace.  "  Full  of 
grace  and  truth,"  said  the  fourth  Gospel  of  him. 
"They  wondered  at  the  gracious  words,"  wrote 
Luke  of  his  first  teaching.  "The  grace  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  you  all," 1  conclude 
most  of  the  Epistles.  What  is  this  grace  of  Jesus 
Christ,  which  thus  lingered  like  an  aroma  where 
he  had  been,  and  for  which  Christians  in  their 
worship  still  unite  to  pray  ?  It  is  the  issue  of 
poise,  simplicity,  and  peace,  the  total  impression 
of  a  harmonious,  unruffled,  and  disciplined  charac- 
ter. Grace  is  not  so  much  a  virtue  as  an  acquired 
instinct,  not  so  much  a  duty  done  as  a  way  of  do- 
ing duty.  External  manners  may  be  cultivated  to 
become  what  is  known  as  gracefulness ;  but  gra- 
ciousness  is  the  unconstrained  expression  of  the 
kindly,  self -forgetting,  and  tranquil  mind.  Some- 
times one  sees  a  child  blessed  with  this  sweet 
reasonableness,  this  natural  winsomeness.  Such 
is  — 

u  The  gracious  boy,  who  did  adorn 
The  world  whereinto  he  was  born, 
And  by  his  countenance  repay 
The  favor  of  the  loving  Day." 

1  John  i.  14,  17;   Luke  iv.  22;  Rom.  xvi.  20;   I  Cor.  xvi.  23; 
Phil.  iv.  23;    1  Thess.  v.  28;  etc. 
o 


194      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

Sometimes  a  man  or  woman  is  endowed  with  this 
same  gift,  —  a  beautiful  way  of  doing  things,  an  in- 
stinctive generosity,  considerateness,  and  tranquil- 
lity. This  is  the  gracious  man,  the  gracious  woman ; 
and  when  the  disciples  recalled  their  Master  it  was 
this  elevation  of  nature  and  compelling  grace  which 
dwelt  in  their  memories  so  vividly  that  their  letters 
and  their  worship  could  not  end  without  this  final 
prayer,  that  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
might  be  with  them  all. 

Here  is  the  final  consequence  of  the  Christian 
character.  Much  goodness,  though  it  compels 
respect,  repels  affection.  It  is  severe,  restless, 
strained,  uncomfortable.  We  admire,  but  we  do 
not  love.  We  wish  there  were  more  persons  so 
excellent,  but  we  do  not  wish  them  near  to  our- 
selves. Much  which  has  been  mistaken  for  the 
Christian  character  has  had  this  repelling  and  ex- 
asperating quality.  The  saints  have  not  been  the 
pleasantest  of  neighbors.  Precisely  the  reverse  of 
such  saintliness  is  the  type  which  reproduces  the 
character  of  Jesus.  Beyond  the  poise,  simplicity, 
and  peace  of  these  rare  lives,  there  is  the  abiding 
sense  of  their  charm.  They  are  not  incapable  of 
severity,  of  indignation,  of  rebuke ;  but  their  char- 
acteristic quality  is  graciousness,  considerateness, 
patience  with  defects,  insight  for  the  excellent  in 
uninteresting  lives.  They  do  not  strive  or  cry  for 
leadership;  they  go  their  way  and  speak  their 
word,  and  men  are  drawn  to  them  by  the  natural 
law   of   attraction,  which   draws   small   bodies  to 


THE  PERSONAL  CONSEQUENCES       195 

greater.  The  sheep  hear  their  voice  and  follow. 
They  do  not  drive,  they  draw.  When  one  thinks 
of  them,  he  recalls  not  so  much  their  greatness  as 
their  grace.  They  have  received  the  final  benedic- 
tion of  the  Christian  character,  the  grace  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   SOCIAL   CONSEQUENCES   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN 
CHARACTER 

The  social  consequences  of  the  Christian  charac- 
ter are  not  to  be  approached  as  though  they  were 
independent  of  its  personal  consequences.  Life  is 
not  like  a  ship  with  water-tight  compartments,  one 
of  which  may  be  submerged  while  another  floats. 
Among  the  most  familiar  of  moral  failures  is  the 
attempt  to  do  good  without  the  antecedent  resolu- 
tion to  be  good.  Social  morality  is  a  corollary  of 
personal  morality.  If  simplicity  and  tranquillity  in 
social  conditions  are  to  be  attained,  it  must  be  by 
increasing  the  number  of  lives  whose  characteris- 
tics are  poise,  simplicity,  peace,  and  grace.  The 
Christian  character  is  the  key  of  the  Christian 
world. 

Here  we  meet  a  distinguishing  characteristic  of 
the  Bible.  Its  ethics  are,  as  a  rule,  personal ;  yet 
the  consequences  of  its  ethics  are,  as  a  rule,  social. 
The  Old  Testament  habitually  addresses  the  indi- 
vidual as  though  he  were  alone  with  his  duty  and 
his  God.  "Thou  shalt  not  sin;  Thou  shalt  love." 
"  The  word  is  very  nigh  unto  thee,  in  thy  mouth 
and  in  thy  heart."     Yet  the   individual  is  at  the 

196 


THE   SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES  I97 

same  time  the  member  of  a  chosen  people  whose 
holiness  and  redemption  are  the  peculiar  task  of 
Jehovah.  The  secret  of  national  welfare  is  in 
personal  morality.  The  nation  may  be  saved  by 
a  remnant  of  the  righteous.  Economic  prosperity 
is  the  social  consequence  of  personal  righteous- 
ness; political  prosperity  is  the  corollary  of  indi- 
vidual holiness. 

Even  more  explicit  is  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  He 
concerns  himself  scarcely  at  all  with  the  organiza- 
tion of  society  or  the  adjustment  of  social  con- 
ditions. The  New  Testament  is  not  a  text-book 
of  political  economy  or  of  social  science.  Jesus 
gives  himself  to  the  inspiration  of  individuals, 
leaving  the  form  and  order  of  the  Kingdom  in  the 
hands  of  individuals.  "Ye  are  the  light  of  the 
world,"  he  says  to  his  handful  of  followers :  "  Ye 
are  the  salt  of  the  earth."  The  Christian  character 
is  to  illuminate  the  darkness  of  the  world  with  its 
light,  and  savor  the  flatness  of  the  world  with  its 
salt.  The  field  of  the  purpose  of  Jesus  was  the 
world ;  but  the  good  seed  which  was  to  fructify 
the  field  was  the  children  of  the  Kingdom.  To 
plant  in  the  soil  of  the  world  the  strong  seed  of  the 
Christian  character  was  to  be  certain  of  an  abun- 
dant harvest  of  social  consequences. 

It  is  interesting  to  remember  that  precisely  this 
sequence  of  events  immediately  succeeded  the 
teaching  of  Jesus.  Though  he  had  so  little  to  say 
of  the  social  perils  and  problems  which  confronted 
his  own  age,  his  followers  were  at   once   thrown 


I98      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

among  these  perils  and  problems;  and  the  new 
faith,  planted  in  a  few  responsive  lives,  gave  an 
early  harvest  of  social  change.  Jesus  was  not  an 
organizer  of  charity ;  yet  the  immediate  effect  of 
his  teaching  was  a  bloom  of  charity  more  luxuriant 
than  the  world  had  ever  seen.  He  was  not  a  labor 
agitator;  yet  his  teaching  undermined  the  Roman 
system  of  society,  gave  new  hope  to  the  slave, 
and  new  self-respect  to  woman.  So  dramatic 
were  these  social  consequences  of  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  that  it  has  been  frequently  described  as 
essentially  a  doctrine  of  social  transformation,  as 
though  industrial  and  political  rather  than  moral 
and  spiritual  changes  were  his  primary  aim.1  Far 
from  the  truth  as  this  conclusion  may  be,  it  indi- 
cates the  ethical  scope  of  the  Gospels.  They  may 
be  searched  almost  in  vain  for  social  regulations, 
yet  they  have  become  an  unparalleled  source  of 
social  inspiration.  Their  social  principles  have 
transformed  the  moral  code  of  the  world ;  yet 
these  principles  are  not  prescriptions  of  the  Chris- 
tian teaching,  but  social  consequences  of  the 
Christian  character. 

1  So,  Nitti,  «  Catholic  Socialism,"  1895,  pp.64  ff. :  "  We  are  bound 
to  admit  that  Christianity  was  a  vast  economic  revolution  more  than 
anything  else.  .  .  .  Most  of  the  great  schisms  and  conflicts  by 
which  the  Catholic  Church  has  been  torn,  were  simply  economic 
conflicts."  So,  Herron,  "The  New  Redemption,"  1893,  PP«  3°  ff- : 
"  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  ...  is  a  treatise  on  political  econ- 
omy. .  .  .  An  industrial  democracy  would  be  the  social  actualiza- 
tion of  Christianity."  Compare  "Jesus  Christ  and  the  Social 
Question,"  pp.  26  ff. 


THE    SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES  10,9 

What,  then,  are  these  social  principles,  which  are 
thus  involved  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  and  which, 
even  in  their  incomplete  application,  have  created 
a  new  order  of  social  duties,  ideals,  and  hopes  ? 
There  are  three  such  principles  explicitly  stated  in 
the  Gospels,  interdependent  in  their  effects,  but 
distinguishable  in  their  form.  Each  of  the  three 
has  appeared  to  many  minds  not  only  impracticable 
and  visionary,  but  even  destructive  of  social  stabil- 
ity, and  has  been  opposed  by  important  tenden- 
cies of  philosophy  and  theology.  Each  principle 
presents  itself  in  the  form  of  a  paradox,  whose  very 
statement  repels  many  minds ;  yet  by  these  para- 
doxes the  Christian  character,  as  a  social  force, 
must  stand  or  fall,  and  through  these  paradoxes 
Jesus  most  distinctly  announces  the  social  conse- 
quences of  the  Christian  character. 

The  first  of  these  principles  is  the  paradox  of 
sacrifice,  the  principle  of  self-realization  through 
self-surrender,  or  —  in  the  less  academic  language 
of  Jesus  —  the  finding  of  life  through  the  losing  of 
it.1  This  principle  makes  a  line  of  cleavage  not 
only  between  ethical  systems,  but  between  personal 
types  of  character.  Self-development,  self-culture, 
self-realization,  — the  Greek  ideal  of  a  harmonious 
and  symmetrical  nature, — is  an  end  of  conduct 
which  cannot  be  lightly  dismissed  as  discreditable. 
Self-realization  is  the  primary  law  of  life.  It  is 
not  selfish  to  cultivate  one's  faculties  or  to  utilize 

1  Matt.  x.  39,  xvi.  25  ;   Mark  viii.  35  ;  Luke  ix.  24. 


200      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

one's  opportunities.  Faculties  and  opportunities 
are  possessed  only  as  they  are  developed  and  used, 
and  without  cultivation  shrivel  and  disappear. 
Jesus  himself  teaches  this  truth,  with  unusual 
elaboration,  in  his  parable  of  the  talents.  The 
gifts  of  life,  according  to  this  impressive  picture, 
increase  in  the  using  and  shrink  through  disuse. 
To  cultivate  one's  powers  is  to  multiply  them,  and 
from  him  who  fails  to  increase  his  stock  is  taken 
away  that  which  seemed  his  own.  This  note  of 
sanity  and  reasonableness  is  heard  throughout  the 
literature  of  self -culture.  We  seem  to  stand  on  safe 
moral  ground.  We  are  not  beguiled  into  the  mis- 
leading paths  of  self-sacrifice,  but  find  before  us  a 
plain  way  of  conduct.  Realize  thyself !  Invest  thy 
talents  !  Know  thyself  !  To  thine  own  self  be  true ! 
—  what  can  be  more  rational  and  convincing  than 
these  familiar  maxims  of  prudential  philosophy  ? 

The  difficulty  of  conforming  to  these  maxims, 
however,  begins  when  one  discovers  that  this  self 
which  is  to  be  thus  realized  is  itself  not  a  fixed 
self,  with  a  definite  signification,  but  a  variable 
and  developing  self,  so  that  one  self  is  reached 
only  to  be  passed  in  the  search  for  a  better  self. 
There  is,  as  Professor  James  has  remarked,  a 
physical  Me,  a  social  Me,  and  a  spiritual  Me.1 
Self-realization,  in  other  words,  may  mean  any- 
thing, from  the  realization  of  animal  instincts  or 
the  most  undisguised  ethical  egoism,  all  the  way 
to  the  highest  visions  of  ethical  idealism.     Self- 

1  Compare  "  Principles  of  Psychology,"  1890,  I,  292. 


THE    SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES  201 

culture  may  mean  either  the  surrender  to  the  lower 
self  or  the  emergence  of  the  higher  self.  The 
moral  process  is  thus  not  so  much  the  outgrowing 
of  self,  as  the  detachment  of  one  self  from  another 
self,  and  the  discovery  of  the  true  self  in  the 
"  spiritual  Me."  How  to  develop  the  existing  self 
into  the  better  self;  how  to  — 

"  Move  upward,  working  out  the  beast 
And  let  the  ape  and  tiger  die ;  " 

how  to  give  to  the  potential  self  control  over  the 
actual  self  —  that  is  the  problem  of  self-realization 
which  has  given  to  the  philosophy  of  self-culture 
its  spiritual  power. 

Yet  even  with  these  qualifications,  self-realization 
has  always  appeared  to  many  minds  an  unsatisfy- 
ing ideal.  What  is  this  little  life  of  the  individual, 
they  ask,  that  it  should  be  taken  so  seriously  ?  Is 
it  not  rather  an  instrument  than  an  end  of  duty  ? 
So  long  as  it  remains  in  the  region  of  self-interest, 
where  it  computes  its  own  advantage  and  bal- 
ances its  own  insignificant  pleasures  and  pains, 
can  it  be  fairly  said  to  have  entered  the  region  of 
moral  obligation  at  all,  or  to  have  reached  the 
knowledge  of  duty  as  a  universal  law  ?  It  is  not 
until  one  transcends  the  personal  and  surrenders 
himself  to  the  universal  that  he  passes  from  ex- 
pediency to  morality,  from  the  calculations  of 
prudence  to  the  categorical  imperative  of  ethics. 

These  reflections,  more  or  less  consciously  ex- 
pressed, displace,  in  many  lives,  the  ethics  of  self- 
realization  by  the  ethics  of  self-sacrifice.     Instead 


202      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

of  sagacious  maxims  of  self-interest  there  is  heard 
the  call  to  the  heroic,  the  self-forgetting,  the  larger 
good.  "  He  that  taketh  not  his  cross,  and  follow- 
eth  after  me,"  said  Jesus,  "is  not  worthy  of  me."1 
"  What  is  the  reason,"  said  Thomas  a  Kempis, 
"  why  some  of  the  saints  were  so  perfect  and  con- 
templative ?  Because  they  labored  to  mortify 
themselves  wholly  to  all  earthly  desires;  and 
therefore  they  could  with  their  whole  heart  fix 
themselves  on  God."2  Self-abnegation,  self-efface- 
ment, even  the  scorn  of  self,  becomes  the  mark 
of  positive  morality;  and  the  self -considering, 
computing,  prudential  spirit  is  a  sign  that  posi- 
tive morality  has  not  yet  begun.  This  conflict  of 
moral  creeds  may  occur  even  within  the  bounds 
of  a  single  human  life.  It  cultivates  itself,  by 
education  and  opportunity,  only  to  find  in  some 
high  moment  of  moral  purpose  that  all  these  gains 
of  self-realization  must  be  abandoned  for  some  ad- 
venture of  self-sacrifice.  What,  then,  is  my  duty, 
cries  out,  in  grave  perplexity,  this  life  which  finds 
itself  rent  by  opposing  motives  —  to  develop  myself, 
or  to  deny  myself ;  to  hear  the  command  of  Jesus 
bidding  me  invest  my  talents  prudently,  or  to  hear 
his  other  command  bidding  me  sell  all  I  have,  take 
up  my  cross,  and  follow  ? 

What  is  the  answer  of  Jesus  to  this  antinomy  of 
ethics,  which  makes  the  daily,  and  often  the  tragic, 
problem   of   many  a  self-scrutinizing  life?     Jesus 

1  Matt.  x.  38  ;   so  xvi.  24 ;   Mark  viii.  34 ;   Luke  ix.  23,  xiv.  27. 

2  "  Imitation  of  Christ,"  Bk.  I,  Ch.  XI. 


THE    SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES  203 

meets  the  issue  with  his  paradox  of  sacrifice. 
There  is,  he  teaches,  no  such  schism  in  life  be- 
tween gain  and  loss,  self-cultivation  and  self-abne- 
gation, the  finding  of  life  and  the  losing  of  it.  The 
field  of  duty-doing  is  not  a  battle-field,  where  duties 
to  oneself  contend  against  duties  to  others ;  it  is  a 
field,  where  human  life,  like  other  living  things,  is 
growing;  and  growth,  by  its  very  nature,  means 
transmission,  expansion,  the  giving  of  the  root  to 
the  stalk,  and  of  the  stalk  to  the  flower,  —  a  loss 
which  is  gain,  and  a  death  which  is  life.  In  short, 
when  Jesus  announces  the  paradox  that  to  save 
life  is  to  lose  it,  and  that  to  lose  it  is  to  save  it,  he 
is  transferring  to  conduct  the  general  law  which 
the  processes  of  Nature  had  disclosed  to  his 
observant  eye.  The  life,  alike  of  the  corn  and  of 
the  conscience,  was,  as  Jesus  saw  it,  a  process  of 
development  through  service,  of  self-realization 
through  self-sacrifice.  The  life  that  withheld  itself 
was  checked  and  dwarfed ;  the  life  that  yielded 
itself  was  enriched  and  confirmed.  Assimilation 
and  elimination,  receiving  to  give,  dying  to  live  — 
such  was  the  rhythm  of  nature  which  Jesus  dis- 
cerned, alike  in  the  fields  of  Galilee  and  in  the 
life  of  man. 

The  modern  world  has  verified  this  law  of 
rhythm.  The  same  paradox  is  observed  in  bio- 
logical organisms,  in  physiological  tissues,  in  in- 
tellectual achievements,  even  in  economic  progress. 
Physical  health,  which  seems  to  depend  on  that 
which  the  body  receives,    depends   in  fact  quite 


204      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

as  much  on  what  is  exhaled  and  excreted.  In- 
tellectual growth  seems  a  matter  of  accumulated 
learning;  but  an  undigested  mass  of  erudition  leaves 
one  a  bookworm  rather  than  a  scholar,  and  produc- 
tive expression  alone  clarifies  and  sifts  the  scholar's 
mind.  The  movement  of  trade  is  on  its  surface  a 
mere  scramble  of  self-seeking ;  but  in  its  total  action 
economic  life  is  a  vast  tidal  process  of  production 
and  distribution,  of  multiplying  by  investing,  of 
increase  through  use.  To  hoard  one's  possessions 
is  to  lose  their  increment.  "  Thou  oughtest  there- 
fore to  have  put  my  money  to  the  exchangers,"  says 
the  capitalist  of  the  parable,  "  and  then  at  my  com- 
ing I  should  have  received  mine  own  with  usury." 1 
Nothing  could  be  more  remote  from  the  spirit 
of  the  Gospels  than  to  conceive  of  Jesus  as  con- 
sciously arguing  from  such  analogies,  or  deducing 
from  them,  by  a  process  of  logic,  his  philosophy 
of  life.  His  mind  was  that  of  a  poet  rather  than 
that  of  a  logician ;  he  saw  rather  than  reasoned ; 
he  overleaped  logic  rather  than  trudged  through 
it ;  yet  there  are  many  indications  that  the  paradox 
in  which  he  states  his  ethics  was  confirmed  by  his 
observation  of  a  general  law.  "  Except  a  corn  of 
wheat  fall  into  the  ground  and  die,"  he  says  of  the 
world  of  nature,  "  it  abideth  alone  :  but  if  it  die,  it 
bringeth  forth  much  fruit."2  "Not  that  which 
goeth  into  the  mouth,"  he  says  of  the  body,  "  de- 
fileth  a  man;  but  that  which  cometh  out  of  the 
mouth,  this   defileth  a  man." 3     "  Take   therefore 

1  Matt.  xxv.  27.  2  John  xiL  24.  8  Matt.  xv.  II. 


THE    SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES  205 

the  talent  from  him,"  he  says  of  the  unused  gifts 
of  God,  "  and  cast  ye  the  unprofitable  servant  into 
outer  darkness."  2  The  same  principle  is  formulated 
in  his  paradox  of  sacrifice.  He  does  not  ask  that 
life  be  thrown  away;  on  the  contrary,  he  points 
out  how  life  is  to  be  saved.  He  does  not  compare 
personal  duty  and  social  duty,  self -development  and 
self-surrender,  as  alternatives  from  which  conscience 
must  choose.  On  the  contrary,  the  only  complete 
self-realization  is,  according  to  his  teaching,  to  be 
reached  through  self-sacrifice.  A  hoarded  life,  like 
hoarded  money,  fails  of  increase.  Throughout  the 
Gospels  runs  this  assurance,  that  the  law  of  rhythm 
binds  together  both  development  and  sacrifice. 
"  Blessed  are  the  merciful,"2  says  Jesus,  not  only 
in  the  mercy  they  show,  but  also  in  the  mercy 
they  receive.  Judge  not,  for  in  the  judgments 
made  on  others  thou  thyself  art  judged.  The  re- 
actions of  mercy  and  the  recoils  of  judgment  bind 
together  duty  to  another  and  duty  to  oneself.  The 
other  is,  in  fact,  another  self;  and  the  self  which 
forgets  itself  in  another  rediscovers  itself  in  the 
other  whom  it  serves.  This  is  the  truth  summed  up 
in  the  Golden  Rule,  —  golden,  not  only  because  it  is 
a  rule  of  self-effacement,  but  because  it  is  also  a  law 
of  self-realization.  In  the  other  self  thou  seest 
thine  own  self.  What,  therefore,  ye  would  that  the 
other  should  do  to  you,  that  do  ye  also  unto  him.3 

1  Matt.  xxv.  28,  30.  *  Matt.  v.  7. 

8  So,  Paulsen,  "  System  der  Ethik,"  1889,  ss.  298  ff., "  Egoism  and 
Altruism " :  "  All  conduct  which  promotes  or  disturbs  the  healthy 


206      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

Such  is  the  first  social  consequence  of  the  Chris- 
tian character.  Many  followers  of  Jesus  and 
many  critics  of  his  teaching  have  conceived  that 
the  character  derived  from  him  is  a  stunted  and 
truncated  type,  which  flings  itself  away  in  self- 
abandoning  and  self-scorning  altruism.  The  fact 
is,  on  the  contrary,  that  the  paradox  of  sacrifice 
indicates  the  only  way  of  deliverance  from  the 
stunted  and  truncated  life.  Nothing  shuts  in  a 
life  and  shuts  out  satisfaction  and  joy  like  the  self- 
considering  temper  and  the  self-centred  aim.  Such 
a  life,  though  it  may  seem  to  itself  self -developing, 
is  in  fact  self-deceived.  Instead  of  growing  richer 
in  its  resources,  it  finds  itself  growing  poorer.  The 
more  it  cultivates  itself,  the  more  sterile  it  grows ; 
the  more  it  accumulates,  the  less  it  has ;  the  more 
it  saves,  the  more  it  is  lost.  The  paradox  of  Jesus 
is  the  picture  of  a  character  which  is  enriched  by 
spending,  developed  by  serving,  happier  itself  be- 
cause it  makes  a  happier  world,  finding  itself  in 
losing  itself,  discovering  the  unity  of  the  moral 
world,  where  sacrifice  is  growth  and  service  is 
freedom. 

It  would  be  ungracious  to  illustrate  this  con- 
trast of  types  by  any  personal  reference  had  not  a 
striking  instance  been  of  late  forced  upon  public 

development  of  the  individual  has  at  the  same  time  the  tendency 
to  promote  or  disturb  the  common  life.  But  the  converse  is  also 
true :  The  fulfilling  of  duties  to  others,  and  the  possession  of  social 
virtues,  have  the  tendency  to  promote  personal  welfare,  and  the 
lack,  of  these  virtues  .  .  .  works  injury  to  one's  own  life," 


THE   SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES  207 

attention  by  the  self-confession  of  a  remarkable 
man.  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  had  hardly  crowned 
his  colossal  system  with  the  theory  of  ethics  which 
he  regarded  as  its  crucial  test,  when  failing  health 
forbade  further  ventures  in  philosophy,  and  he 
gave  himself  to  the  study  of  his  own  character  and 
mind.  His  autobiography  is  singularly  lacking  in 
incident,  but  almost  without  parallel  as  the  scientific 
analysis  of  a  human  type,  and  as  an  unconscious 
illustration  of  the  writer's  ethical  creed.  He  had 
already  expounded,  in  theoretical  terms,  the  dis- 
tinction between  absolute  morality  and  relative 
morality,  the  hopelessness  of  attaining  ideal  right, 
and  the  duty  of  adjusting  oneself  to  expediency 
with  the  least  friction  of  desire ;  and  he  has  now 
reported  the  experience  of  a  life  consistently 
directed  by  a  creed  of  relative  ethics.  What  was 
the  moral  product  of  such  a  creed  ?  What  type  of 
character,  according  to  the  philosopher's  own  con- 
fession, issued  from  the  habitual  balancing  of 
competing  ends  ?  Was  this  balance  of  desires  pos- 
sible to  maintain,  or  did  it  involve  an  experience  of 
meagre  satisfactions,  scanty  resources,  and  trivial 
decisions  ?  In  substituting  for  the  paradox  of 
sacrifice  the  pursuit  of  a  judicious  self-interest,  did 
the  happiness  and  scope  of  life  increase,  or  did  that 
which  seemed  the  gain  of  life  become  its  loss  ? 

These  interesting  questions  are  answered  with 
fulness  in  the  curious  story  of  high  thinking  and 
meagre  living  which  Mr.  Spencer  himself  has  told. 
It  is  sufficient  to  recall  a  single  chapter,  which 


208      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

bears  the  startling  title,  "A  Grievous  Mistake." 
It  recounts  what  Mr.  Spencer  describes  as  "the 
most  unfortunate  incident"  of  his  career.  What 
was  this  great  disaster?  It  was  the  mishap  of 
yielding  to  an  instinct  of  indignant  sympathy. 
The  tendency  of  English  politics  toward  aggres- 
sion over  weaker  races  stirred  his  sense  of  justice, 
and  he  permitted  himself  to  attend  a  meeting  and 
to  make  a  speech.  This  interruption  of  his  regu- 
lar routine,  however,  brought  temporary  harm  to 
his  health  and  a  consequent  delay  in  the  comple- 
tion of  his  philosophical  system.  He  was  smitten 
with  a  sense  of  self-reproach,  and  proceeds  at  con- 
siderable length  to  speculate  whether  the  effort  to 
do  good  does  not  generally  bring  more  harm  than 
benefit.  His  one  attempt  at  public  service  re- 
mained in  his  memory  as  "a  grievous  mistake." 
For  the  rest  of  his  life  every  circumstance  is  tested 
by  its  bearing  on  his  own  productive  power  and 
his  own  peace  of  mind.  Even  the  love  of  children 
is  a  cultivated  resource ;  and  he  sends  for  them  to 
play  in  his  room  because  he  finds  that  they  quiet 
his  nerves  and  restore  his  power  of  work.1    Never, 

1  "  An  Autobiography,"  by  Herbert  Spencer,  1904,  II,  443  ff.  : 
"  The  actions  I  have  narrated  above  were  prompted  exclusively  by 
the  desire  to  further  human  welfare.  .  .  .  But  right  though  I 
thought  it,  my  course  brought  severe  penalty  and  no  compensations 
whatever."  II,  523  :  "  During  early  years,  and  throughout  mature 
years,  there  was  no  sign  of  marked  liking  for  children.  .  .  .  When 
at  Brighton  in  1887,  suffering  the  ennui  of  an  invalid  life,  I  one 
day,  while  thinking  over  modes  of  killing  time,  bethought  me  that 
the  society  of  children  might  be  a  desirable  distraction.  .  .  .     Mrs. 


THE   SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES  209 

perhaps,  was  there  so  candid  a  disclosure  of  a 
wholly  self-considering  career,  or  a  more  explicit 
contrast  with  the  Christian  paradox  of  sacrifice. 
From  this  point  of  view  the  career  of  Jesus,  ending 
at  the  age  of  thirty,  with  its  task,  as  it  seemed, 
half  done,  its  disciples  despairing,  and  its  teach- 
ing not  even  preserved  in  literary  form,  would  have 
certainly  seemed  "a  grievous  mistake."  Would 
not  the  world  have  been  richer  if  Jesus,  like  the 
English  philosopher,  had  lived  to  a  ripe  old  age, 
and  left  behind  him,  not  a  few  beatitudes  and 
parables,  but  a  complete  system  of  religion  and 
ethics  such  as  his  later  years  might  have  produced  ? 
The  answer  to  this  criticism  is  sufficiently  given 
by  the  unconscious  evidence  of  Mr.  Spencer  himself. 
He  had  set  himself  to  write  a  universal  philosophy ; 
but,  with  a  candor  which  no  critic  would  have 
dared  to  use,  he  points  out  how  meagre  was  the 
material  for  such  a  philosophy  which  could  be 
drawn  from  his  own  emotions  and  desires.  He 
did  not  permit  himself  to  enter  the  region  of  life 
where  Jesus  found  not  only  the  joy  of  living,  but 
all  that  he  understood  under  the  name  of  Life. 
Mr.  Spencer's  narrow  range  of  experience  dis- 
qualified him  from  interpreting  experience.  The 
severest  indictment  of  his  ethics  is  his  autobiog- 
raphy.    Love  and  pity,  service  and  sacrifice,  are 

W.  Cripps  let  me  have  two  of  her  little  ones  for  a  fortnight.     The 
result  was  ...  to  awaken  in  a  quite  unanticipated  way  the  philo- 
progenitive instinct  .  .  .  and  the  two  afforded  me  a  great  deal  of 
positive  gratification." 
P 


210      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

subordinated  by  him  to  the  task  of  explaining 
human  life;  but  the  subject  which  was  his  theme 
was  precisely  the  subject  he  had  left  unexplored, 
and  when  his  Ethics  was  set,  as  a  capstone,  on  the 
great  structure  he  had  built,  the  writer  regarded 
it  with  a  sigh  of  disappointment,  as  though  aware 
that  his  system  was  soon  to  be  a  historical  monu- 
ment, marking  a  point  where  the  procession  of 
thought  had  for  a  few  years  paused.1  The  frag- 
mentary ethics  of  Jesus  remains  the  interpreter  of 
the  modern  conscience,  while  Mr.  Spencer's  Sys- 
tem, in  comparison  with  which  a  generous  impulse 
seemed  a  grievous  mistake,  has,  like  many  another 
system,  had  its  day  and  ceased  to  be.  The  whole 
story  is  told  in  a  conversation  with  Professor  Hux- 
ley. As  they  walked  together  one  day  Mr.  Spencer 
said :  "  I  suppose  that  all  one  can  do  with  his  life 
is  to  make  his  mark  and  die."  "  It  is  not  necessary 
to  make  one's  mark,"  replied  Huxley;  "all  one 
need  do  is  to  give  a  push." 

To  the  paradox  of  sacrifice  in  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  is  added,  as  a  second  principle,  the  paradox 
of  service.  It  is  the  answer  of  the  Gospels  to  the 
inevitable  desire  of  healthy-minded  human  beings 
for  success,  achievement,  power,  mastery.     Jesus 

1  See  Preface  to  "Principles  of  Ethics,"  Vol.  II,  1893:  "Now 
that  ...  I  have  succeeded  in  completing  the  second  volume  of 
The  Principles  of  Ethics,  .  .  .  my  satisfaction  is  somewhat 
dashed  by  the  thought  that  these  new  parts  fall  short  of  expecta- 
tion. The  Doctrine  of  Evolution  has  not  furnished  guidance  to  the 
extent  I  had  hoped." 


THE    SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES  211 

takes  life  as  it  is,  with  its  ambitions,  its  hope  of 
reward,  its  desire  to  control.  He  does  not  counsel 
the  abandonment  of  these  normal  desires,  but  on 
the  contrary  says  to  many  an  inquirer :  "  Your 
reward  shall  be  great."  He  does  not  depreciate 
success  or  greatness;  he  teaches  what  it  is  to 
be  successful  and  what  is  the  mark  of  greatness. 
When,  however,  he  announces  his  paradox,  how 
irrational  and  impracticable  it  seems!  "Whoso- 
ever," he  says,  "  will  be  great  among  you,  let  him 
be  your  minister;  and  whosoever  will  be  chief 
among   you,  let   him  be   your   servant."1 

When  such  a  teaching  is  confronted  by  the  facts 
of  the  world,  does  it  not  sound  like  sheer  rhetorical 
extravagance  ?  Is  not  greatness  more  concerned 
with  ruling  than  with  ministering  ?  Is  there  to  be 
no  distinction  between  master  and  servant  ?  Is  not 
success,  under  the  conditions  of  the  real  world, 
reserved  for  self-assertion,  aggression,  leadership, 
rather  than  for  the  desire  to  minister  and  the  pas- 
sion for  service  ?  Is  not  the  law  of  natural  selec- 
tion verified  in  social  life  as  in  the  physical  world  ? 
Do  not  the  few  that  are  fit  to  survive  succeed  in 
the  social  struggle,  and  the  many  that  are  unfit  to 
be  great  become  ministers  and  servants  ?  Is  it  not 
better  to  accept  this  inevitable  law  and  to  adjust 
life  to  its  compulsion  than  to  substitute  a  senti- 
mental for  a  scientific  world  ?  Though  the  ways 
of  nature  are  merciless,  do  they  not  in  the  end 
prove  more  merciful  than  the  ways  of  sentiment  ? 

1  Matt.  xx.  26,  27. 


212      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

Let  the  fit  survive,  let  the  strong  rule,  let  the  weak 
slip  down  by  the  easiest  path,  unobstructed  by 
mistaken  philanthropy,  toward  degeneration,  steril- 
ity, and  extinction ;  until  at  last,  through  much 
pain  perhaps,  yet  by  an  unhindered  process  of 
social  evolution,  the  better  world  arrives,  when  those 
who  are  great  shall  rule  through  their  greatness, 
and  those  who  are  fit  to  be  first  are  the  masters 
of  all !  Such  is  the  new  animalism,  so  cleverly 
disguised  as  scientific  wisdom  and  worldly  com- 
mon sense,  which  finds  in  superior  force  and  un- 
bridled license  the  most  effective  instruments  of 
social  peace. 

It  would  not  be  difficult  to  oppose  these  doctrines 
by  a  saner  view,  even  of  the  physical  processes  on 
which  this  new  naturalism  rests.  Is  it  true,  one 
might  ask,  that  social  evolution  invariably  advances 
through  the  same  internecine  conflict  which  in  the 
physical  world  has  eliminated  inferior  types,  or  is 
it  rather  true  that  as  progress  becomes  human  it 
proceeds  under  a  new  law  of  ministry  and  service  ? 
The  inventor  of  a  new  industry,  the  explorer  of 
a  new  continent,  the  discoverer  of  a  new  law  of 
nature,  the  advocate  of  a  new  cause  —  have  these, 
whose  names  make  epochs  in  human  history, 
become  great  at  the  cost  of  others  or  rather 
through  service  to  others  ?  Behind  the  competi- 
tions of  the  industrial  world  is  there  not  disclosed 
a  system  of  social  service,  where,  in  spite  of  many 
evasions  of  its  laws,  he  that  would  be  greatest  min- 
isters to  some  general  need  and  becomes  the  ser- 


THE    SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES  213 

vant  of  all  ?  Do  not  the  poet  and  the  artist  become 
great  by  ministering  to  an  ideal  which  others  recog- 
nize but  cannot  utter  ?  Is  there  not  a  temporariness 
in  success  through  mastery,  and  a  permanence  in 
success  through  service  ?  Does  not  the  world 
finally  withhold  its  honor  from  those  who  compel 
admiration  and  give  it  to  those  who  deserve 
gratitude  ? 

Such  considerations,  even  though  they  may  not 
cover  the  whole  area  of  social  life,  at  least  limit 
the  range  of  the  brutality  and  mercilessness  which 
it  at  times  exhibits.  It  would  be,  however,  a  most 
inadequate  statement  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  to 
find  in  it  merely  this  observation  of  the  kindlier 
aspects  of  civilization  and  progress.  His  paradox 
of  service  goes  quite  beyond  the  statement  of  laws 
which  govern  the  world  as  it  is,  and  proposes  a 
new  law  for  the  world  as  it  might  be.  He  is  rais- 
ing an  issue  with  the  ordinary  principles  of  social 
life,  rather  than  stating  an  analogy  which  they 
confirm.  It  is  not  the  correspondence  of  his 
thought  with  accepted  truth,  but  the  originality  and 
improbability  of  his  paradox  which  give  it  a  place 
in  history.  Jesus  is  himself  the  discoverer  of  a 
new  moral  process,  the  explorer  of  a  new  moral 
continent ;  and  the  paradox  which  he  announces 
must  always  appear  incredible  to  those  who  use 
the  ordinary  moral  processes  or  live  in  the  familiar 
continents  of  conduct.  His  teaching,  as  he  ex- 
plicitly says,  is  not  one  which  can  commend  itself 
to  worldly  wisdom,  but  one  which  must  be  verified 


214      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

by  personal  experience.  He  prefaces  his  paradox 
by  saying:  "Ye  know  that  the  princes  of  the 
Gentiles  exercise  dominion  over  them,  and  they 
that  are  great  exercise  authority  upon  them.  But 
it  shall  not  be  so  among  you."  2 

What,  then,  is  this  moral  process  which  he  dis- 
covers, this  moral  continent  which  he  explores  ? 
It  is  a  process  which  reverses  the  ordinary  classifi- 
cations of  goodness,  a  continent  in  which  recogni- 
tion and  primacy  are  given  to  a  kind  of  conduct 
which  is  elsewhere  lightly  regarded  or  doubtfully 
praised.  In  the  history  of  ethics  character  has 
been  generally  described  as  a  personal  possession, 
to  be  cultivated  and  maintained  as  an  endowment 
of  the  individual.  Its  ideal  expression  is  in  what 
is  called  integrity,  —  the  clean,  straight,  honorable 
way  of  life.  It  is  an  ethical  attitude  like  that 
physical  attitude  which  the  body  assumes  when  at 
its  best,  a  condition  of  uprightness,  a  moral  posture 
of  steadiness,  erectness,  and  poise.  Nothing  in  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  discredits  this  self-respecting 
integrity.  The  literature  of  his  nation  abounded 
in  the  praise  of  uprightness.  Noah,  it  is  written, 
was  an  upright  man ;  Job  was  an  upright  man ; 
David  walked  in  integrity.  "  Mark  the  perfect 
man,"  says  the  Psalmist,  "and  behold  the  up- 
right "  ;  "  The  just  man  walketh  in  his  integrity."  2 
This  is  the  unbending  and  unflinching  habit  of  life 
to  which  Jesus  applies  the  word  righteousness. 
Uprightness  is  the  external  expression  of  righteous- 

1  Matt.  xx.  25,  26,  2  Ps.  xxxvii.  37  ;  Prov.  xx.  7. 


THE    SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES  215 

ness;  righteousness  is  the  spiritual  principle  of 
uprightness.  It  is  at  this  point  that  the  ethics  of 
Jesus  begin.  "  Seek  first  the  Kingdom  of  God  and 
His  righteousness";  "Blessed  are  they  that  hun- 
ger and  thirst  after  righteousness."  The  Christian 
character  is,  first  of  all,  upright,  erect,  integral, 
righteous. 

When,  however,  Jesus  passes  from  the  element- 
ary beginnings  of  morality  to  its  finer  expressions, 
and  considers  the  marks  which  distinguish  moral 
greatness,  he  enters  into  a  new  region  of  conduct, 
as  though  he  were  ascending  the  heights  of  life 
and  had  come  to  a  new  zone  of  vegetation  and  a  new 
horizon  of  outlook.  "  Whosoever  would  be  great 
among  you,"  he  says,  "shall  be  your  minister,  and 
whosoever  would  be  first  shall  be  your  servant." 
This  is  not  only  uprightness,  but  uprightness  which 
bows  itself ;  not  only  erectness,  but  the  capacity  of 
erectness  to  stoop  and  serve.  Integrity,  to  Jesus, 
is  not  merely  a  possession,  but  an  instrument ;  not 
an  attitude  which  is  unbending,  but  a  strength 
which  can  bow  itself  to  minister.  His  whole 
teaching  gives  an  extraordinary  dignity  to  the 
humblest  forms  of  service.  "  Come,  ye  blessed 
of  my  Father,"  he  says,  in  language  of  the  loftiest 
commendation,  "  inherit  the  kingdom  prepared  for 
you  from  the  foundation  of  the  world."  1  What 
makes  these  blessed  ones  the  heirs  of  the  Kingdom  ? 
It  is  that  they  have  fed  the  hungry,  received  the 
stranger,  clothed  the   naked,  befriended  those  in 

1  Matt.  xxv.  34. 


2l6      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

prison.  The  servants  of  those  which  are  least  are 
the  heirs  of  that  which  is  most.  They  are  chief 
because  they  are  ministers. 

The  most  touching  illustration  of  this  teaching  is 
that  in  which  the  fourth  Gospel  adds  to  the  sayings 
at  the  Last  Supper  an  act  of  the  most  impressive 
and  suggestive  symbolism.  Jesus,  after  the  Sup- 
per, says  the  passage,  knows  that  the  Father 
has  given  all  things  into  his  hands,  and  that  he  is 
come  from  God  and  goes  to  God.1  It  is  his  last 
opportunity  to  confirm  his  leadership  and  to  demon- 
strate to  his  friends  his  great  commission.  How 
does  he  teach  this  lesson  of  spiritual  primacy  ?  He 
rises  from  the  table  and,  laying  aside  his  garments, 
washes  the  disciples'  feet,  saying  unto  them  :  "  For 
I  have  given  you  an  example,  that  ye  should  do  as 
I  have  done  to  you."2  The  evidence  that  he  had 
come  from  God  and  was  going  to  God  was  in  his 
taking  on  himself  the  form  of  a  servant.  His  right 
to  lead  was  in  his  desire  to  minister.  His  mastery 
of  men  was  in  his  service  of  men.  The  disciple  of 
Jesus  was  to  prove  his  discipleship  by  the  capacity 
to  stoop  and  serve. 

When  the  Apostle  Paul  desires  to  reiterate  his 
Master's  principle  of  service,  he  also  is  led  to 
express  it  in  the  same  language  of  paradox.  "  Bear 
ye  one  another's  burdens,"  he  says,  "  and  so  fulfil 
the  law  of  Christ."3  The  law  of  Christ  is  the 
law  of  service.  To  say :  "  Bear  ye  one  another's 
burdens,"  is   but  to  repeat  the  saying  of   Jesus, 

1  John  xiii.  3.  2  John  xiii.  15.  8  Gal.  vi.  2. 


THE    SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES  217 

"As  I  have  washed  your  feet,  ye  ought  also  to 
wash  one  another's  feet."  Yet  in  almost  the  same 
breath  Paul  goes  on  to  announce  an  opposite  and 
apparently  contradictory  law.  "  Every  man,"  he 
says,  "  shall  bear  his  own  burden;  "  as  though  now 
repeating  that  other  word  of  Jesus  :  "  If  any  man 
would  come  after  me,  let  him  take  up  his  own  cross 
and  follow  me."  Is  this  transition  sheer  inconsist- 
ency in  the  apostle's  thought,  or  does  the  essence 
of  his  teaching  lie  in  its  paradox  ?  Who  are  they, 
he  seems  to  ask  himself,  who  can  fulfil  the  law  of 
Christ  and  bear  the  burdens  of  others  ?  It  is  not 
every  one  who  wishes  to  be  a  burden-bearer  who 
is  able  to  carry  the  load.  Not  every  tender  heart 
can  be  effectively  sympathetic.  They  only  can 
bear  others'  burdens  who  quietly  and  firmly  bear 
their  own.  The  principle  of  service  involves  the 
possession  of  strength.  To  stoop  in  pity  one 
must  first  stand  erect.  Each  one  who  bears  his 
own  burden  has  added  to  him  the  further  bless- 
ing that  he  may  bear  others'  burdens  too.  The 
paradox  of  service  states  not  only  the  duty,  but 
the  condition  of  usefulness.  He  that  is  strong 
to  bear  his  own  burdens  is  able  to  be  the  servant 
of  all. 

This  aspect  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  immediately 
impressed  his  followers  and  gave  a  peculiar  qual- 
ity to  primitive  Christian  life.  Among  the  earliest 
traditions  concerning  the  death  of  Jesus  was  that 
"  being  put  to  death  in  the  flesh  ...  he  went  and 
preached  "  to  the  spirits  in  prison  before  he  as- 


2l8      JESUS    CHRIST    AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

cended  "to  the  right  hand  of  God."1  "He  de- 
scended into  hell,"  says  the  so-called  Apostles' 
Creed,2  "  he  ascended  into  heaven."  The  first  act 
of  his  ascension  was  a  descent.  His  freedom  from 
the  flesh  made  him  the  servant  of  those  in  bonds. 
His  first  step  toward  heaven  was  not  up,  but  down. 
This  new  ethics  at  once  characterized  the  new  faith. 
A  new  responsibility  for  the  weak,  the  sick,  the 
outcast,  the  prisoner,  the  slave,  for  women  and 
children,  became  the  primary  evidence  of  disciple- 
ship.  The  earliest  records  of  Christian  worship 
report  as  an  essential  part  of  ritual  the  deposit  of 
alms  for  the  relief  of  the  needy.  The  earliest 
expressions  of  Christian  prayer  gather  up  into  the 
petition  of  the  congregation,  the  help  of  the  helpless 
and  the  cry  of  the  poor.3     The  Christian  religion 

1  i  Peter  iii.  19,  22. 

2  So,  XXXIX  Articles,  No.  VIII:  "That  which  is  commonly 
called  the  Apostles'  Creed." 

8  Justin,  "  Apology,"  Ch.  LXVII :  "  At  the  close  of  the  prayer,  as 
we  have  before  described,  bread  and  wine  with  water  are  brought. 
The  President  offers  prayer  and  thanks  for  them,  according  to  the 
power  given  him,  and  the  congregation  responds  the  Amen.  Then 
the  consecrated  elements  are  distributed  to  each  one,  and  partaken, 
and  are  carried  by  the  deacons  to  the  houses  of  the  absent.  The 
wealthy  and  the  willing  then  give  contributions  according  to  their  free 
will,  and  this  collection  is  deposited  with  the  President,  who  therewith 
supplies  orphans  and  widows,  poor  and  needy,  prisoners  and  strang- 
ers, and  takes  care  of  all  who  are  in  want."  So,  "  Teaching  of  the 
Twelve  Apostles,"  tr.  Hitchcock  and  Brown,  1884,  Ch.  XII,  XIII  : 
"  Let  every  one  that  cometh  in  the  Lord's  name  be  received,  but 
afterward  ye  shall  test  and  know  him  ;  for  ye  shall  have  under- 
standing, right  and  left.  If  he  who  comes  is  a  traveller,  help  him 
as  much  as  ye  can ;  but  he  shall  not  remain  with  you,  unless  for 


THE   SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES  219 

became  a  vast  movement  of  philanthropy.  Com- 
passion, sympathy,  charity,  brotherhood  —  these 
words  were  superimposed  in  the  structure  of  the 
Christian  character  on  rectitude,  uprightness,  right- 
eousness. Christian  discipleship  was  not  complete 
until  the  disciple,  like  his  Master,  rose  from  the 
table  of  abundance  and  bent  as  a  servant  to  minister 
to  human  needs. 

Here  was  a  new  classification  of  virtues.  The 
primacy  of  compassion,  the  dignity  of  sympathy, 
the  lordship  of  service,  made  a  teaching  strange  to 
Roman  ears  and  still  presents  a  perplexing  para- 
dox to  many  a  modern  mind.  However  noble  the 
teaching  appears  to  be,  is  it  —  one  may  still  ask  — 
a  teaching  which  should  be  unhesitatingly  obeyed  ? 
Has  it  been  to  the  advantage  of  the  world  that 
these  softer  sentiments  should  have  such  pre- 
cedence? Has  not  Christian  compassion  pro- 
longed many  superfluous  lives;  has  not  Christian 
charity  supported   in  idleness   those  who   should 

two  or  three  days,  if  there  be  necessity.  But  if  he  will  take  up  his 
abode  among  you,  being  an  artisan,  let  him  work  and  so  eat ;  but 
if  he  have  no  trade,  provide,  according  to  your  understanding,  that 
no  idler  live  with  you  as  a  Christian."  ...  "  Every  firstfruit, 
then,  of  the  products  of  wine-press  and  threshing-floor,  of  oxen  and 
of  sheep,  thou  shalt  take  and  give  to  the  prophets  ;  for  they  are 
your  high-priests.  But  if  ye  have  no  prophet,  give  it  to  the  poor." 
So,  "  Epistle  of  Clement  to  the  Corinthians,"  tr.  Lightfoot,  1877, 
Appendix,  p.  376  :  "  We  beseech  Thee,  Lord  and  Master,  to  be  our 
help  and  succour.  Save  those  among  us  who  are  in  tribulation ; 
have  mercy  on  the  lowly ;  lift  up  the  fallen  ;  show  Thyself  unto  the 
needy  ;  heal  the  ungodly  ;  convert  the  wanderers  of  Thy  people ; 
.  .  .  raise  up  the  weak ;  comfort  the  faint-hearted." 


220      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

have  learned  the  hard  lessons  of  thrift  ?  Is  one's 
life  best  employed  in  ministering  to  the  weak ;  or 
will  one  in  the  end  accomplish  more  for  the  world, 
as  well  as  for  himself,  by  finding  for  himself  a  place 
among  the  strong?  Might  not  Jesus  have  occupied 
the  last  hours  of  his  life  with  some  task  more  useful 
than  the  washing  of  his  disciples'  feet  ? 

The  answer  to  such  questions  must  finally  de- 
pend on  the  antecedent  conclusion  which  one  may 
reach  concerning  the  nature  of  human  society.  Is 
the  social  order  essentially  a  fratricidal  or  a  fraternal 
world  ?  Is  it  a  chaos  or  a  cosmos  ?  Is  it  a  scramble 
or  a  family  ?  Must  those  who  rise  climb  over  the 
bodies  of  those  who  fall ;  or  is  there,  on  the  con- 
trary, no  permanent  security  for  those  at  the  top 
unless  there  be  a  corresponding  lift  of  those  at  the 
bottom  ?  Can  there  be  a  survival  of  the  fit  unless 
there  be  also  a  corresponding  revival  of  the  unfit  ? 
Is  civilization  most  secure  where  a  ruling  class 
represses  an  illiterate  peasantry,  or  where  a  democ- 
racy insures  civil  rights  to  all?  Is  a  community 
rich  which  spends  nothing  on  its  paupers,  its  blind, 
its  insane ;  or  is  it  true,  as  a  historian  of  the  Eng- 
lish Poor  Law  has  remarked,  that  "  the  moral  life 
of  the  community  is  incompatible  with  the  spectacle 
of  unrelieved  indigence  "  ? 1 

The  teaching  of  Jesus  presupposes  what  the  an- 
swer to  such  questions  must  be.     If  it  were  true 

1  Fowle,  "The  Poor  Law,"  1881,  p.  10 :  "This  law  or  fact  we 
may  express  in  the  following  terms :  That  every  society  upon  arriv- 
ing at  a  certain  stage  of  civilization  finds  it  positively  necessary 


THE    SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES  221 

that  society  is  merely  the  organization  of  selfishness, 
that  the  elevation  of  the  few  involves  the  degrada- 
tion of  the  many,  that  progress  and  poverty  must 
increase  together,  that  mastery  must  rest  on  servi- 
tude ;  —  then  the  teacher  who  should  propose  that 
the  great  should  be  servants  and  the  first  should  be 
ministers,  is  too  ignorant  or  too  defiant  of  social 
laws  to  be  a  trustworthy  moral  guide.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  human  society  is  an  organism,  where 
the  strength  of  the  whole  is  dependent  on  the  health 
of  each  part,  and  where  the  neglect  or  atrophy  of 
any  part  threatens  the  vitality  of  the  whole;  if 
the  chief  peril  of  the  social  order  is  created  by  the 
isolation  and  hostility  of  social  classes ;  if  the  first 
conditions  of  social  security  are  mutual  understand- 
ing, fraternalism,  cooperation,  the  spirit  of  indus- 
trial and  political  democracy ;  if  there  is  a  law  of 
the  equilibration  of  characters,  as  of  the  equilibra- 
tion of  forces,  by  which  power  is  transferred  from 
the  strong  to  the  weak,  and  the  balance  of  life  re- 
stored ;  —  then  no  teaching  could  be  more  sane  and 
rational  than  that  which  exalts  the  work  of  minis- 
tering and  affirms  the  dignity  of  service. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  how  many  modern 
tendencies  of  thought  tend  to  confirm  this  view  of 
social  progress.     Sociology  and  economics,  politics 

for  its  own  sake,  —  that  is  to  say,  for  the  satisfaction  of  its  own 
humanity,  and  for  the  due  performance  of  the  purposes  for  which 
societies  exist,  —  to  provide  that  no  person,  no  matter  what  has 
been  his  life,  or  what  may  be  the  consequences,  shall  perish  for  want 
of  the  bare  necessaries  of  existence." 


222      JESUS    CHRIST    AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

and  philanthropy,  have  been  led  to  appreciate,  in 
an  unprecedented  degree,  the  unity  and  interdepen- 
dence of  human  society.  It  has  become  plain  that 
a  condition  of  prosperity  for  the  few  and  a  condi- 
tion of  degradation  for  the  many  creates,  not  a 
stable  society,  but  a  social  volcano,  which  is  threat- 
ened every  day  by  eruption  from  beneath.  We  have 
learned  through  the  tragedies  of  war  in  the  East 
that  political  autocracy  is  the  seed  of  political 
weakness  an(£  revolution.  We  have  become  aware, 
through  tragedies  near  at  hand,  that  the  life  of  the 
garment-wearer  in  a  luxurious  home  is  at  the  mercy 
of  the  health  or  disease  of  the  garment-worker  in 
the  tenement.  We  have  become  convinced  that 
the  defective  classes  must  be  protected  if  the  State 
is  to  be  secure ;  that  the  social  order,  though  it  be 
built  by  self-interest,  must  be  cemented  by  com- 
passion. In  spite  of  all  the  greed  and  self-seeking 
of  the  modern  world,  it  is  already  recognized  that 
those  are  first  in  honor  who  heal  social  divisions, 
establish  democracy,  free  the  slave,  help  the  help- 
less, deliver  the  oppressed.  The  heart  of  the  time 
responds  to  the  dictum  of  Emerson  :  "  Every  step 
so  downward,  is  a  step  upward.  The  man  who 
renounces  himself,  comes  to  himself." *  Human 
society,  in  short,  is  not  a  fixed  condition,  where  a 
single  law  is  adequate  for  its  interpretation ;  it  is 
a  living,  moving  organism,  a  process  of  growth, 
from  the  animalism  and  brutality  which  still  threaten 
its  advance,  to  the  humanity  and  altruism  which 

1  "  Divinity  School  Address,"  p.  67. 


THE    SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES  223 

are  already  real  possessions.  The  teaching  of 
Jesus  addresses  itself  to  the  ideal  society,  the  com- 
ing social  order,  the  superman.  To  the  lower 
instincts  of  human  beings  his  law  is  an  absurdity p 
but  to  their  higher  moments  it  is  demonstrable 
truth.  Here  is  the  issue  between  Christian  civili- 
zation and  social  reversion.  The  whole  structure 
of  modern  philanthropy  and  social  responsibility  — 
our  hospitals,  our  charities,  our  science  of  relief,  our 
industrial  schemes  of  mutual  welfare  —  rest  on  the 
paradox  of  Jesus.  The  passion  for  service,  which 
is  so  conspicuous  a  mark  of  modern  life,  is  nothing 
else  than  a  social  consequence  of  the  Christian 
character. 

There  remains  a  third  paradox  in  the  teaching 
of  Jesus,  less  explicitly  announced  and  less  directly 
related  to  the  conduct  of  life,  but  involved  in  all 
his  teaching,  and  of  the  utmost  social  consequence. 
It  is  the  paradox  of  idealism.  As  one  reviews  the 
intellectual,  literary,  and  social  tendencies  of  the 
present  time,  he  observes,  among  much  that  is 
reckless  and  superficial,  an  extraordinary  revival 
of  the  sense  of  reality.  Instead  of  conventionalism 
in  literature,  formalism  in  art,  and  artificiality  in 
manners,  there  is  a  new  respect  for  facts,  a  new 
confidence  in  candor,  a  renaissance  of  realism.  It 
is  a  phase  of  civilization  which  is  full  of  promise. 
Honesty  is  better  than  affectation  ;  facts  are  more 
romantic  than  fiction  ;  sincerity  is  more  convincing 
than  conventionalism,  and  realism  than  unreality. 


224      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

What  is  it,  however,  which  to  modern  realism 
seems  most  real  ?  What  are  these  facts  which  are 
thus  substituted  for  unreality  ?  To  what  end  is 
this  new  passion  for  sincerity  and  unaffectedness 
devoted  ?  Is  it  not  true  that  realism,  instead  of 
offering  a  satisfying  creed,  often  presents  a  patheti- 
cally meagre  and  colorless  picture  of  life  ?  In  its 
reaction  from  the  fictitious  and  the  metaphysical, 
is  it  not  inclined  to  content  itself  with  facts  which 
are  insignificant,  and  in  its  respect  for  truth  to  take 
for  its  material  truths  which  are  not  even  respect- 
able? Realism  at  its  worst  has  become  merely 
another  name  for  the  art  of  the  flesh  and  the  litera- 
ture of  the  sty ;  and,  even  at  its  best,  realism,  in  the 
effort  to  be  real,  runs  grave  risk  of  missing  the 
very  touch  which  gives  to  art  or  literature  perma- 
nent reality.  It  is  steadying  to  have  one's  feet  on 
the  ground,  but  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  look  up 
to  the  stars.  It  is  honest  to  recognize  the  scum 
on  the  surface  of  the  stream  of  life,  but  it  is  not 
dishonest  to  remember  the  clear  current  below. 
It  is  a  dramatic  surprise  to  discover  —  as  realism 
has  discovered  —  that  poetry  may  be  wrought  out 
of  steam-engines  and  barrack-rooms  and  light- 
houses ;  but  Mr.  Kipling's  writings  would  be  no 
more  than  a  passing  literary  fashion  unless  at  times 
he  touched  the  note  of  the  heroic,  the  spiritual,  the 
sublime.  In  short,  the  revival  of  realism  renews 
the  question  of  the  nature  of  reality.  Is  human 
life  real  when  it  is  at  its  worst  or  when  it  is  at  its 
best  ?     To  be  sincere  must  one  be  brutal,  fleshly, 


THE    SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES  225 

cynical  ?  Is  the  scum  of  life  real  and  not  its  deeper 
waters  ?  Is  the  mud  real  and  not  the  star  ?  Is 
there,  in  a  word,  any  fundamental  issue  between 
the  real  and  the  ideal,  or  is  the  ideal  the  most  real 
of  human  possessions,  and  are  the  best  interpreters 
of  reality  the  idealists  ? 

To  such  questions  the  greatest  of  the  world's 
sages,  prophets,  philosophers,  artists,  and  seers 
give  but  one  reply.  Human  life  does  not  come  to 
its  own  until  it  comes  to  its  ideals.  The  thirst  for 
reality  is  unslaked  by  the  temporary,  the  accidental, 
the  fleshly;  and  is  satisfied  by  nothing  less  than 
the  permanent,  the  spiritual,  the  ideal.  "The 
things  which  are  seen  are  temporal ;  but  the  things 
which  are  not  seen  are  eternal,"  says  St.  Paul.1  "  Our 
heart  can  find  no  rest  until  it  rests  in  Thee,"  2  says 
St.  Augustine.  "We  seek  the  better  because  we 
conceive  a  Best,"  says  modern  philosophy.3  "  Man 
is  an  ideal-forming  animal,"  says  modern  ethics.* 

"  'Tis  not  what  man  does  which  exalts  him,  but  what  man 
would  do," 

says  modern  poetry.5 

1  2  Cor.  iv.  1 8.  2  "  Confessions,"  I,  I. 

8T.  H.  Green,  "Prolegomena  to  Ethics,"  1883,  p.  325:  "No 
one  doubts  that  a  man  who  improves  the  current  morality  of  his 
time  must  be  something  of  an  Idealist.  .  .  .  That  idea  cannot 
represent  any  experienced  reality.  If  it  did,  the  reformer's  labour 
would  be  superfluous." 

4  John  Grote,  "A  Treatise  on  the  Moral  Ideals,"  1876,  p.  392: 
"  Whatever  else  we  consider  about  man,  we  must  add  to  this  — 
what  constitutes  indeed  the  practical  significance  of  our  calling 
him  a  rational  animal  —  that  he  is  an  ideal-forming  animal." 

6  Browning's  "  Saul." 
Q 


226      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

u  What  I  aspired  to  be, 
And  was  not,  comforts  me."1 

"  Was  ich  besitze,  sen'  ich  wie  im  weiten, 
Und  was  verschwand,  wird  mir  zu  Wirklichkeiten.1" 

In  this  serene  company  of  witnesses  of  the  spirit 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  finds  its  place.  He  is  the 
greatest  of  idealists,  not  as  a  philosopher  ex- 
pounding a  system,  but  as  a  character  consciously 
sustained  by  an  ideal  aim  which  to  him  is  the 
supreme  reality.  At  the  beginning  of  his  minis- 
try he  repeats  to  the  tempter  the  words  of  Deu- 
teronomy :  "  Man  doth  not  live  by  bread  only, 
but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the 
mouth  of  the  Lord ;  " 3  and  this  conviction  that  the 
real  life  is  fed  by  the  sense  of  the  ideal  colors  his 
teaching  and  conduct  to  the  end.  "  The  life,"  he 
says,  "  is  more  than  meat."  4  "A  man's  life  con- 
sisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things  which 
he  possesseth."  "Thou  fool,"  says  the  parable,  of 
him  that  "layeth  up  treasure  for  himself,  and  is  not 
rich  toward  God."  5  "  My  meat,"  says  the  fourth 
Gospel,  "is  to  do  the  will  of  him  that  sent  me."6 
Thus  by  word  and  deed  Jesus  testifies  that  the  real 
life  is  life  directed  toward  its  ideal.  His  teaching 
is  not  a  theory  of  reality,  but  a  discovery  of  reality. 
He  does  not  evade  material  facts;  he  translates 

1  Browning's  "  Rabbi  Ben  Ezra." 

2  Goethe,  Faust,  ite  Theil,  "  Zueignung." 

8  Deut.  viii.  3.  6  Luke  xii.  15,  20,  21. 

4  Luke  xii.  23.  6  John  iv.  34. 


THE    SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES  227 

material  facts  into  his  idealism.  Nature,  business, 
the  play  of  children,  the  work  of  life,  all  speak  to 
him  the  truth  of  the  spirit  in  the  language  of  the 
real.  The  subjects  of  his  parables  are  the  com- 
monplace and  trivial  incidents  of  life,  but  the 
purpose  of  his  parables  is  the  idealization  of  the 
commonplace  and  trivial.  The  way  of  his  dis- 
cipleship  is  through  prosaic  deeds,  like  feeding 
the  hungry,  clothing  the  naked,  or  caring  for  the 
stranger;  but  the  prose  becomes  poetry  and  the 
real  becomes  ideal  when  Jesus  says,  "  Inasmuch 
as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  these  least  ye  have 
done  it  unto  me." 

Thus,  behind  the  paradox  of  sacrifice  and  the 
paradox  of  service  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  stands 
always  this  paradox  of  idealism.  The  reason  one 
is  sure  that  to  lose  life  is  to  find  it,  and  that  to 
serve  is  to  command,  is  because  he  is  antecedently 
sure  that  the  world  is  not  what  it  seems  to  be,  —  a 
world  of  material  gains  and  glory ;  but  that  the 
real  is  the  ideal,  and  that  the  unseen  things  are 
eternal.  Here  is  the  explanation  of  the  curious 
mingling  of  conservatism  and  radicalism  in  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  which  has  perplexed  many  an 
observer.  He  comes,  not  to  destroy  the  Law,  but 
to  fulfil  it;  yet  his  teaching  proves  a  radical  de- 
parture from  the  Law  and  an  offence  to  the  legal- 
ists. How  can  he  be  at  once  a  destroyer  and  a 
fulfiller,  a  radical  and  a  conservative  ?  It  is  because 
he  finds  the  reality  of  the  Law  in  the  ideals  of 
the  Law;  and  in  destroying  the  formal  law  he  is 


228      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN  CHARACTER 

fulfilling  the  ideal  law,  as  the  ripening  of  a  seed 
involves  the  bursting  of  its  shell. 

Such,  for  instance,  is  the  attitude  of  Jesus  toward 
the  law  of  the  Sabbath.  He  is  conservative  in  con- 
formity, yet  radical  in  interpretation.  He  shares 
the  common  worship,  and  takes  his  part  in  its 
ritual ;  yet  his  conduct  on  the  Sabbath  day  appears 
to  many  blasphemous.  "The  sabbath,"  he  says, 
"was  made  for  man,  and  not  man  for  the  sab- 
bath." 1  The  reality  of  the  Sabbath  was  to  be 
sought  in  the  ideal  of  the  Sabbath.  Its  authority 
is  not  formal,  conventional,  repressive ;  it  is  human, 
enriching,  spiritualizing.  What  makes  a  man  more 
a  man  is  a  Christian  use  of  the  Sabbath  ;  but  a  man 
is  not  more  a  man  when  he  is  undevout,  ungirt,  or 
torpid.  Jesus  does  not  lower  the  level  of  the  day 
of  rest;  he  lifts  it,  and  it  becomes  a  real  day  of 
the  Lord  through  its  revival  of  the  ideal  life  of  man. 

These  details,  however,  are  but  illustrations  of 
one  comprehensive  conception  in  which  the  ideal- 
ism of  Jesus  is  fully  expressed.  "  He  came  into 
Galilee,  preaching  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom  of 
God."  2  It  was  a  social  ideal  which  still  seems  to 
many  minds  the  Utopian  dream  of  a  visionary  en- 
thusiast ;  yet  to  Jesus  this  unattained  ideal  was  the 
supreme  reality  which  gave  direction  to  his  entire 
work.  The  Kingdom  of  God,  as  described  by  Jesus, 
has  many  aspects.  It  is,  at  one  time,  remote,  exter- 
nal, millennial ;  again  it  is  near,  accessible,  spiritual. 
In  its  fulfilment  it  was  to  be  a  divine  harvest  of  the 

1  Mark  ii.  27.  2  Mark  i.  14. 


THE    SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES  229 

world ;  but  the  seed  of  that  harvest  already  lay  in 
the  faith,  love,  and  prayers  of  the  little  company 
of  believers.  "  Fear  not,"  he  says,  "  little  flock ; 
for  it  is  your  Father's  good  pleasure  to  give  you 
the  kingdom."  "  I  will  give  unto  thee  the  keys 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven."1 

Was  ever  idealism  so  audacious  as  this  ?  What 
seemed  the  real  world,  with  its  Roman  power,  its 
Hebrew  prejudices,  its  human  neutrality  and  timid- 
ity, shrank  into  insignificance  before  the  mind  of 
Jesus,  as  the  ideal  of  his  faith,  the  better  world, 
the  brotherhood  of  man,  the  Fatherhood  of  God, 
became  to  him  the  great  reality  for  which  he  might 
live  and  die.  The  paradox  of  idealism  made  his 
teaching  extravagant  and  unintelligible  to  many 
hearers,  as  it  still  remains  an  offence  to  the  wis- 
dom of  the  world.  Why  should  we  be  guided,  one 
asks,  by  illusory  dreams,  when  the  realities  of  life 
bluntly  contradict  this  vision  ?  Why  should  Chris- 
tian congregations  still  pray  that  God's  kingdom 
may  come  on  earth,  when  after  nineteen  centuries 
it  is  as  far  away  as  ever  ?  Is  it  not  better  to  take 
the  world  as  it  is  than  to  imagine  it  as  it  cannot  be ; 
to  content  oneself  with  the  real  rather  than  to 
dream  of  the  ideal  ?  The  Christian  character,  on 
the  other  hand,  inherits  from  Jesus  his  inexpug- 
nable idealism.  The  world  as  it  is,  prosaic,  hard, 
commercial,  is  the  raw  material  of  the  world  as  it 

1  Luke  xii.  32  ;  Matt.  xvi.  19.  Compare  the  various  views  of  the 
nature  of  the  Kingdom  as  contrasted  in  "Jesus  Christ  and  the 
Social  Question,"  pp.  91  ff.,  with  notes. 


230      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

is  to  be.  The  Christian  is  an  optimist,  not  with 
the  reckless  assurance  which  calls  evil  good,  but 
with  the  rational  faith  that  good  is  to  overcome 
evil,  and  that :  — 

u  Step  by  step,  since  time  began, 
We  see  the  steady  gain  of  man." 

When  one  surveys  the  history  of  moral  prog- 
ress, what  does  it  teach  but  the  justification  of 
this  idealism  ?  What  is  it  that  has  created  a  better 
world  but  the  antecedent  faith  of  the  idealists? 
Each  reform  in  industrial  conditions,  in  the  pro- 
tection of  the  unprotected,  in  the  abolition  of  slav- 
ery, —  whether  it  be  chattel  slavery  or  commercial 
slavery,  —  in  the  treatment  of  the  criminal  and  the 
prisoner,  has  been  first  dreamed  and  then  accom- 
plished. The  idealist  endures  "as  seeing  him 
who  is  invisible."1  God  chooses  "the  things  which 
are  not,  to  bring  to  nought  things  that  are."3 
First  comes  the  idealist  with  his  impracticable  hope, 
and  then  follow  the  legislatures  and  the  nations 
with  their  practicable  measures.  First  comes  the 
prayer  for  God's  kingdom,  and  then  the  realization 
of  that  kingdom  in  some  corner  of  the  world.  The 
idealist  does  not  argue  with  the  world  as  it  is ;  he 
simply  creates  the  world  which  has  been  proved  to 
be  impossible.  The  sagacious  Pilate  smiles  at  the 
zeal  of  Jesus  for  a  kingdom  of  truth  and  withdraws 
from  this  hopeless  idealism  to  the  realities  of  the 
kingdom  of  the  Caesars;    but  the  realist  is  soon 

1  Heb.  xi.  27.  2  1  Cor.  i.  28. 


THE    SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES  23  I 

remembered  only  because  he  once  ridiculed  the 
idealist,  and  the  kingdom  of  the  Caesars  surrenders 
to  the  kingdom  of  the  truth. 

Such  are  the  paradoxes  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
and  their  social  consequences.  The  Christian 
character,  with  its  sacrifice,  its  service,  its  idealism, 
must  always  appear  perplexing  to  the  selfish,  the 
grasping  or  the  worldly.  Why  is  it,  then,  one  is 
led  finally  to  ask,  that,  in  spite  of  these  paradoxes 
of  character,  the  heart  of  the  world  has  turned 
toward  such  a  teaching,  and  that  worldly  sagacity 
has  been  unable  to  arrest  the  progress  of  this  ideal- 
ism, even  when  it  seems  so  easily  disproved  ?  It 
is  because  life  itself  is  so  complex,  many-sided,  and 
contradictory  that  nothing  short  of  the  paradoxical 
is  its  adequate  interpretation.  One  of  the  most 
instructive  of  intellectual  experiences  is  to  watch  a 
system-maker  as  he  follows  his  passion  for  the 
simplification  of  truth.  He  sets  at  the  head  of  his 
task  some  clew  or  formula,  and  the  facts  which 
present  themselves  fall  in  like  a  procession  behind. 
It  may  be  the  origin  of  religion  which  he  is  ex- 
amining, or  the  nature  of  society  or  the  history  of 
ethics,  and  in  each  the  complexity  of  truth  is  re- 
duced to  the  limits  of  one  astonishingly  simple  law. 
We  are  on  the  brink  of  consenting  to  the  theory 
proposed,  —  a  worship  of  ancestors,  it  may  be,  or  a 
law  of  imitation  or  a  doctrine  of  utility.  Truth, 
which  had  hitherto  baffled  us  with  its  complexity, 
is  opened  by  a  single  key.     Then,  of  a  sudden, 


232      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

another  truth  looks,  as  it  were,  over  the  shoulder 
of  the  principle  thus  presented  and  mocks  our 
simple  faith.  Instead  of  presenting  to  us  one 
calm  face,  truth  is  like  a  throng  of  faces,  vary- 
ing in  expression  and  confusing  in  their  complex- 
ity. The  simple  formula  was  ingenious,  but  it  was 
not  ample  enough  to  hold  the  many-sidedness  of 
truth. 

There  is  the  same  story  to  tell  of  the  simplify- 
ing of  conduct.  Do  what  the  philosophers  may 
to  reduce  life  to  a  formula,  it  remains  a  para- 
dox. Shall  we  define  life  as  pleasure  or  pain,  as 
gain  or  loss,  as  rich  or  poor,  as  long  or  short  ?  It 
is  all  of  these,  a  series  of  mingled  and  bewildering 
experiences,  a  quick  shifting  of  light  and  shadow, 
of  sunshine  and  storm,  of  achievement  and  regret, 
of  living  and  dying.  To  find  life  simple  is  not  to 
have  lived;  to  miss  the  complexity  of  experience 
is  to  miss  the  meaning  of  life.  Each  life  holds 
many  lives.  There  are  truths  which  are  false  on 
one  level  of  experience  and  which  become  true 
only  as  one  ascends.  There  are  experiences  which 
are  fictitious  to  one  age  or  condition,  but  which 
are  the  supreme  sources  of  joy  or  peace  as  one 
grows  fit  to  use  them.  The  same  truth,  Jesus 
taught,  may  be  convincing  to  some  minds  and 
quite  inaccessible  to  others.  He  that  has  ears  to 
hear,  alone  can  hear.  "Unto  you,"  he  said  to  his 
friends,  "  it  is  given  to  know  the  mysteries  of  the 
kingdom  of  God ;   but  to  them  it  is  not  given."  1 

1  Luke  viii.  10 ;  Matt.  xiii.  II. 


THE    SOCIAL    CONSEQUENCES  233 

There  were  things  which  he  desired  to  teach  which 
did  not  come  into  view  until  one  went  up  with  him 
to  the  height  of  his  teaching;  where  that  which 
seemed  to  those  below  a  paradox  became  the  most 
obvious  of  realities. 

How  is  it,  then,  that  the  paradoxes  of  Jesus  may 
be  applied  to  the  paradox  of  life?  They  cannot  be 
accepted  as  theories ;  they  can  be  verified  by  ex- 
perience alone.  The  appeal  of  Jesus  is  always  to 
experience.  "  Follow  me,"  he  says.  "  Sell  all  that 
thou  hast  and  follow  me."  "  Come  unto  me."  "  I 
am  the  way."  The  paradox  of  sacrifice  must  seem 
to  those  who  do  not  go  the  way  of  sacrifice,  a  foolish 
teaching  which  leads  to  loss  of  life ;  but  those  who 
follow  this  way  to  its  end,  discover  that  it  is  life 
which  they  have  found.  The  paradox  of  service  is 
for  the  poor  in  spirit  alone  to  verify,  yet  through 
their  self-effacing  service  the  poor  in  spirit  reach 
the  kingdom  of  heaven.  The  paradox  of  idealism 
is  to  the  realist  the  most  illusory  of  dreams,  yet  the 
idealist  creates  the  reality  in  which  he  alone  has 
believed.  Not  one  of  these  paradoxes  is  a  truth 
open  to  demonstration.  They  are  apparent  con- 
tradictions, precisely  as  life  itself  appears  to  be 
a  contradiction;  but  the  apparent  contradictions 
of  truth  are  among  the  most  impressive  evidences 
of  the  many-sidedness  of  life.  The  social  para- 
doxes of  Jesus  are  not  propositions  of  the  Christian 
reason ;  they  are  consequences  of  the  Christian 
character. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   ASCENT   OF   ETHICS 

In  all  that  has  been  thus  far  said  there  is  a 
manifest  sense  of  incompleteness.  The  ethical 
teaching  of  Jesus,  though  it  may  interpret  many  of 
his  words  and  works,  brings  us  repeatedly  to  a 
point  where  the  Teacher  seems  to  pass  beyond  the 
province  of  ethics  and  to  use  a  language  which 
ethics  does  not  comprehend.  His  summons  to 
righteousness,  his  command  of  love,  his  conception 
of  life,  all  move  in  the  sphere  of  ethics ;  but  when 
at  any  point  he  indicates  the  sources  of  his  moral 
authority,  the  motives  which  direct  his  will,  the 
grounds  of  his  ethical  confidence,  he  crosses  the 
boundary  of  ethics,  and,  while  still  discoursing  of 
character,  enters  a  region  where  character  is  con- 
sciously controlled  by  communion  with  God.  Jesus, 
in  short,  is  fundamentally  not  a  teacher  of  morals, 
but  a  witness  of  religion.  The  supreme  motive  of 
his  conduct  is  his  relation  to  the  Father.  "  Wist 
ye  not,"  he  says  in  youth,  "  that  I  must  be  about 
my  Father's  business  ?  "  x  "  All  things  are  delivered 
unto  me,"  he  says  of  his  commission,  "of  my 
Father."2     The  interpretation  of  the  teaching  of 

1  Luke  ii.  49.  2  Matt.  xi.  27;   Luke  x.  22. 

234 


THE   ASCENT    OF   ETHICS  235 

Jesus  in  terms  of  ethics  leads,  as  it  were,  to  a 
threshold,  which  the  Teacher  crosses  to  enter  a 
room  of  which  ethics  has  no  key,  and  of  which  he 
says  :  "lam  the  door." 

This  impression  which  one  receives  from  the 
teaching  of  Jesus,  that,  though  ethical  in  its  con- 
tent and  aim,  its  motives  and  sources  are  super- 
ethical,  meets  one  again  as  he  examines  the  modern 
literature  of  systematic  ethics.  These  analyses  of 
conduct  proceed  with  their  classifications  of  virtues, 
appetites,  and  desires,  where  the  student  feels  at 
each  step  that  there  is  solid  ground  under  his  feet; 
yet  he  cannot  escape  the  suspicion  that  these 
ethical  distinctions,  though  substantial  so  far  as 
they  go,  do  not  touch  the  bottom  of  the  material 
with  which  they  deal.  It  is  as  though  one's  way 
led  over  a  series  of  stepping-stones,  each  of  which 
was  firm,  but  beneath  which  ran  an  unexplored  and 
mysterious  stream.  Beneath  the  questions  of  ethics, 
even  when  these  are  answered,  run  deeper  ques- 
tions of  religion,  issuing  from  sources  which  lie 
back  of  ethics,  and  flowing  to  an  end  which  is  be- 
yond ethics.  The  footpath  of  ethics  follows  the 
course  of  this  current  of  religion,  and  one  looks 
down  from  the  stepping-stones  of  morals  and 
wonders  whither  this  unexplored  river  would  bear 
him  if  he  gave  himself  to  its  control. 

In  the  preface  of  Dr.  Martineau's  "  Study  of 
Religion"  he  quotes  "an  eminent  English  posi- 
tivist "  as  commenting  on  John  Fiske's  treatise  on 
the  "  Destiny  of   Man."     "  It   only  proves,"  said 


236      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

this  advocate  of  naturalistic  ethics,  "what  I  have 
always  maintained,  that  you  cannot  make  the 
slightest  concession  to  metaphysics,  without  ending 
in  a  theology ! "  The  criticism  was  to  be  antici- 
pated ;  but,  as  Dr.  Martineau  proceeds  to  remark, 
it  was  a  na'fve  confession  that  "  If  once  you  allow 
yourself  to  think  about  the  origin  and  end  of  things, 
you  will  have  to  believe  in  a  God  and  immortality." 1 
That  was  precisely  what  had  happened  to  John 
Fiske.  He  had  permitted  himself  to  think  about 
the  evolution  of  morality,  and  the  implications  of 
ethics  had  led  him  across  the  threshold  of  religion.2 
Ethics,  in  short,  while  it  has  a  certain  stability  and 
coherence  of  its  own,  has  the  marks  of  a  prelimi- 
nary, suggestive,  propaedeutic  science.  A  theory 
of  morals  is  like  a  house  by  the  wayside,  where 
one  may  rest  securely  for  a  night,  but  which  is  not 
the  journey's  end.  Ethics  is  a  sign-post  on  the 
way  to  religion. 

This  lack  of  finality  has  a  striking  illustration  in 
an  Association  which  has  made  important  contri- 
butions to  contemporary  morals  in  the  name  of 
"  Ethical  Culture."  Here  is  a  movement  which, 
superficially  regarded,  is  neutral  or  hostile  to  the 

1  "  Study  of  Religion,"  1888,  pp.  vii  ff. 

2  "  The  Destiny  of  Man,  viewed  in  the  Light  of  his  Origin," 
1884,  pp.  104  ff. :  "Now  what  is  this  message  of  the  modern 
prophet  but  pure  Christianity?  .  .  .  When  have  we  ever  before 
held  such  a  clew  to  the  meaning  of  Christ  in  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount?  .  .  .  Our  new  knowledge  enlarges  tenfold  the  sig- 
nificance of  human  life,  and  makes  it  seem  more  than  ever  the 
chief  object  of  Divine  care." 


THE   ASCENT    OF   ETHICS  237 

formal  teaching  of  religion,  and  deliberately  re- 
stricts its  programme  to  moral  education.  The 
metaphysics  of  Christianity  are  dismissed  from  con- 
sideration as  superfluous  and  obstructive,  and  atten- 
tion is  recalled  to  the  obvious  and  immediate  truths 
of  ethical  responsibility  and  human  service.  It  is 
an  indictment  which  the  churches  should  take  to 
heart,  an  appeal  from  feeling  to  conduct,  from 
theology  to  life.  When,  however,  one  observes 
more  closely  the  literature  of  Ethical  Culture,  he 
is  surprised  to  observe  that,  though  its  title  seems 
repressive,  its  intention  is  comprehensive.  Its 
"culture"  represents  not  merely  the  practice  of 
morality,  but  the  philosophy  of  idealism.  Its  hope 
is  not  to  reduce  religion  to  morals,  but  to  expand 
morals  into  religion.  Its  language  is  that  of  ethics, 
but  its  motives  are  those  of  faith.  Ethical  idealism 
may  shun  the  phrases  of  religion ;  but  its  emotions, 
its  impulses,  its  spiritual  attitude,  are  identical  with 
those  of  rational  piety.  Faith  in  the  moral  order 
of  the  Universe,  in  the  categorical  imperative  of 
duty,  in  the  fitness  of  man  for  ethical  culture,  may 
not  express  the  whole  of  religion,  but  it  is  certainly 
the  point  at  which  the  teaching  of  Jesus  began. 
Lives  which  are  trained  to  recognize  the  universal 
authority  of  the  moral  law  may  not  name  the  name 
of  God,  but  they  are  doing  the  will  of  the  Father. 
Ethical  culture  is  suppressed  Theism.1 

1  Compare  e.g.  **  Ethics  and  Religion,"  edited  by  the  Society  of 
Ethical  Propagandists,  1900,  Lect.  I,  J.  R.  Seeley,  "  Ethics  and 
Religion,"  p.  26 :  "  My  advice  is  that  instead  of  waging  war,  open 


238      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

If,  then,  it  be  true  that  ethics,  whether  in  its 
modern  forms  or  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  bears 
this  mark  of  preparatoriness,  as  though  preliminary 
to  an  end  beyond  itself,  what  is  the  principle  which 
distinguishes  these  two  ways  of  conduct  ?  Can 
religion  exist  without  morality  ?  Can  morality  ex- 
ist without  religion  ?  Is  religion  merely  morality 
touched  with  emotion  ?  Is  morality  merely  religion 
freed  from  superstition  ?  Theologians  have  spoken 
slightingly  of  mere  morality  or  mere  works  ;  moral- 
ists have  regarded  with  equal  indifference  mere 
theology  or  faith  without  works.  Religion  often 
appears  unmoral  or  even  immoral,  whether  in  cruel 
rites  of  barbaric  tribes  or  in  limp  emotions  of 
modern  sentimentalists.  Morality  often  acts  with- 
out consciousness  of  religious  sanctions,  whether  in 
Stoic  philosophers  or  in  modern  Agnostics.  How, 
then,  shall  one  discriminate  ethics  from  religion  ? 
What  is  it  in  these  two  sentiments,  which  have 

or  covert,  you  enter  once  for  all  into  the  heartiest  and  most  reserved 
alliance  with  Christianity";  Lect.  II,  Felix  Adler,  "The  Freedom 
of  Ethical  Fellowship,"  pp.  50  ff. :  "  The  teachings  of  Jesus  ...  are 
that  it  is  necessary  to  live  the  spiritual  life  in  order  to  understand 
the  spiritual  truths.  .  .  .  The  symbols  of  religion  are  ciphers  of 
which  the  key  is  to  be  found  in  moral  experience.  .  .  .  The  new 
religious  synthesis  which  many  longed  for,  will  not  be  a  fabrication, 
but  a  growth.  It  will  .  .  .  come  in  time  as  a  result  of  the  grad- 
ual moral  evolution  of  modern  society."  Lect.  IV,  W.  M.  Salter, 
"  Ethical  Religion,"  pp.  88  ff. :  "  Ethics  realized  in  its  meaning  is 
religion.  .  .  .  Aspiration,  reverence,  awe,  .  .  .  are  but  uncompleted 
morality;  and  when  the  moral  act  is  done,  ecstasy  is  its  sign, — 
ecstasy,  which  is  the  grace  heaven  sets  upon  the  moment  in  which 
the  soul  weds  itself  to  the  perfect  good." 


THE    ASCENT    OF    ETHICS  239 

directed  so  great  a  part  of  human  history,  —  the 
sense  of  duty,  and  the  sense  of  God,  —  which  at 
the  same  time  demonstrates  their  affinity  and  denies 
their  identity  ?  How  is  it  that  ethics  comes  to  have 
this  preliminary  and  unconclusive  aspect,  as  though 
it  were  a  threshold  across  which  one  passed  to 
faith  ? 

The  answer  to  these  questions  is  suggested  when 
one  observes  the  different  circles  of  relationship  in 
which  the  two  sentiments  habitually  move.  Ethics 
is  sociological,  human,  contemporary.  It  considers 
the  adjustment  of  each  individual  within  the  circle 
of  his  social  relations.  The  elementary  truth  which 
makes  the  starting-point  of  ethics  is  the  truth  that 
the  individual  is  not  alone,  but  is  a  part  of  the 
social  order.  Through  the  performance  of  its 
function  by  each  part,  the  social  organism,  like 
physical  organisms,  survives  and  thrives ;  the  dis- 
covery by  the  individual  of  his  part  in  the  social 
whole  is  his  problem  of  ethics  ;  and  the  perform- 
ance of  that  part  is  the  doing  of  his  duty.  Indi- 
viduals are  not  wandering  atoms  which  at  times 
collide  and  then  rebound  into  isolation ;  they  are 
inevitably  associated  in  the  organic  life  of  the 
social  body.  Thy  neighbor  and  thyself  are  inter- 
dependent atoms  ;  and  the  moral  law,  "  Thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  is  imperative,  be- 
cause it  describes  the  fact  that  thy  neighbor  and 
thyself  are  members  one  of  another.1 

1  Compare  Royce,  "The  World  and  the  Individual,"  1901,  Leet. 
VIII,  "  The  Moral  Order,"  p.  349 :  "  The  essence  of  this  consciousness 


240      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

If  this  is  the  field  of  ethics,  what  is  that  of  reli- 
gion ?  Here  also  the  individual  finds  himself  part 
of  an  organic  life,  in  which  he  is  to  find  and  fulfil 
his  function  ;  but  the  circle  of  relationship  in  which 
he  is  now  set  is  no  longer  limited  by  the  human, 
social,  contemporary  world.  Association  with  the 
Eternal,  loyalty  to  the  Ideal,  communion  with 
God,  —  the  characteristic  attitudes  of  the  religious 
life,  —  assume  that  the  individual  is  set  within  a 
universal  order,  whose  total  movement,  whether  of 
man  or  nature,  of  pain  or  pleasure,  of  personal  or 
national  experience,  is  the  movement  of  a  spiritual 
intention,  the  evolution  of  a  Divine  plan.  To  con- 
form to  that  plan  and  cooperate  with  it  becomes  the 
supreme  desire.  Discernment  of  that  plan  is  the 
end  of  theology;  cooperation  with  it  is  the  end 
of  religion.  To  fulfil  one's  function  in  the  uni- 
versal organism ;  to  recognize  in  one's  own  experi- 
ence not  an  unmeaning  accident,  but  an  essential 
incident  in  the  vast  design ;  to  do  not  one's  own 
will,  but  the  will  of  Him  who  sends  us,  —  that  is 
the  habit  of  mind  which  expresses  the  peace,  cour- 
age, and  consecration  of  a  religious  faith.1 

[of  Ought]  is  that  the  Self  is  to  accomplish  the  object  of  its  search 
through  obedience  to  an  order  which  is  not  of  its  own  momentary  crea- 
tion ";  Seth,  "  Ethical  Principles,"  1902,  Ch.  XI,  "  The  Social  Life  "; 
Wundt,  "Ethik,"  1886,  ss.  386  ft\,  "Das  Verhaltniss  des  Einzelnen 
zur  Gesammtheit";  Mackenzie,  "Introduction  to  Social  Philoso- 
phy," 1890,  Ch.  Ill,  "The  Social  Organism." 

1  So,  Sabatier,  "  Religions  of  Authority  and  the  Religion  of  the 
Spirit,"  tr.  Houghton,  1904,  pp.  350  ff. :  "  If  the  law  of  duty  is  the 
immanent  law  of  the  life  of  the  spirit ;  ...  if  humanity  makes  no 


THE   ASCENT   OF   ETHICS  24I 

Here,  then,  are  two  circles  of  conduct  which  in 
one  aspect  are  identical,  but  in  another  are  dis- 
tinct. The  problem  of  conduct  is  in  each  case  the 
same.  Morality  and  religion  are  alike  concerned 
with  the  adjustment  of  the  part  to  the  whole,  the 
atom  to  the  organism,  the  person  to  the  world ;  but 
the  areas  of  conduct  within  which  adjustment  is  to 
be  found  are  of  different  dimensions.  What  ethics 
proposes  within  the  circle  of  social  life  religion 
accomplishes  in  the  larger  circle  of  the  universal 
order.  The  two  circles  are  concentric.  At  the 
centre  of  each  stands  the  personal  life,  with  its 
own  problems  and  needs ;  but  while  the  radius  of 
one  circle  runs  out  to  the  circumference  of  human 
companionship,  the  radius  of  the  environing  circle 
is  protracted  as  far  as  thought  and  feeling  have 
the  strength  to  go.  It  is  not  surprising,  then,  that 
ethics,  though  having  a  certain  completeness  of  its 
own,  betrays  the  sense  of  a  greater  environment. 
The  outer  edge  of  ethical  inquiry  is  the  inner 
margin  of  larger  problems.  Prolong  the  radius  of 
duty-doing,  and  one  enters  the  territory  of  faith. 
Ethics  goes  its  own  way  toward  its  own  end ;  but 
the  end  of  ethics  is  no  sooner  approached  than 
there   appears   beyond   it  a  further  ideal,  as  one 

progress  ...  except  by  obedience  ;  ...  if  this  law  commands  uni- 
versal evolution  .  .  .  does  it  not  become  evident  that  .  .  .  the  law 
of  duty  shares  in  the  objectivity  of  cosmic  laws  themselves  ?  "  So, 
G.  H.  Palmer,  "The  Field  of  Ethics,"  1901,  p.  201  :  "Ethics  is 
.  .  .  occupied  with  earthly  conditions.  The  finite  is  its  field; 
but  .  .  .  the  moral  man  is  ever  seeking  to  manifest  the  connection 
of  the  finite  with  the  infinite." 


242      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

reaches  what  seems   the   summit  of   a   mountain 
only  to  discover  a  higher  peak  beyond. 

May  ethics,  then,  exist  without  religion  ?  Such 
independence,  it  must  be  answered,  may  unques- 
tionably be  maintained;  but  it  is  maintained  by 
restricting  the  radius  and  scope  of  duty.  Small 
ethics,  conventional  conduct,  decent  conformity, 
may  be  comfortably  fortified  within  a  very  limited 
circle  of  principles  and  sanctions ;  but  no  sooner 
does  conduct  reach  out  toward  heroism,  initiative, 
leadership,  idealism,  than  the  circle_j3j_ethics  ex- 
pands into  that  of  faith,  and  instead  of  conformity 
to  conventional  maxims  feels  the  compulsion  of 
categorical  commands.  May  religion,  on  the  other 
hand,  exist  without  morality  ?  This  detachment, 
also,  it  must  be  admitted,  appears  practicable. 
Religion  has  an  outer  circle  of  emotion  and  expres- 
sion in  which  one  may  dwell  without  retiring  to 
the  inner  circle  of  practical  morality.  The  con- 
templation of  God  may  become  so  absorbing  that 
it  may  induce  sheer  inactivity,  meditation  or  ec- 
stasy.1 The  manifestation  of  religion  may  be  mis- 
taken for  religion  itself,  and  religion  may  be  defined 
as  though  it  occupied  an  outer  circle  of  ritual, 
ceremonial  or  theology.  Yet  this  rupture  of  the 
outer  circle  of  experience  from  the  inner  is  like  the 
breaking  of  a  living  growth,  where  the  part  cut  off 
withers  and  the  part  abandoned  shows  the  scar. 
Religion,  as  a  way  of  life,  is  a  flower  of  the  whole 
of  life.     It  does  not  outgrow  morality,  it  grows  out 

1  So,  Palmer,  "  Field  of  Ethics,"  1901,  pp.  180  ff. 


THE   ASCENT    OF    ETHICS  243 

of  morality.  It  is  no  more  to  be  denned  by  the 
form  it  assumes  than  a  person  can  be  denned  by 
the  clothes  he  wears.  Ritual,  ceremony,  theology, 
are  the  clothes  of  religion,  and  religion  itself  is 
the  life  within.  Normal  religion  is  an  extension  of 
the  radius  of  morality.  It  is  conduct  persuaded 
by  the  call  of  God,  life  set  in  the  circumference  of 
the  Eternal,  participation  in  the  universal  order, 
enlargement  of  experience  by  contact  with  the 
permanent.  "Wouldst  thou  find  thy  way  to  the 
Infinite  ? "  said  Goethe,  "  Push  on  into  the  finite 
as  far  as  thou  canst  go."  *  Even  the  immoralities 
which  have  often  characterized  the  history  of  reli- 
gion confirm  the  principle  that  religion  is  an  exten- 
sion of  morality ;  for  it  is  the  sense  of  obligation, 
perverted  but  compelling,  which  has  given  to  these 
immoralities  their  authority.  The  imperfect  ethics 
has  penetrated  the  developing  faith,  as  a  waver- 
ing radius  vitiates  a  circle.  Pure  religion,  what- 
ever else  it  may  contain,  is  a  circle  of  experience 
at  whose  centre  are  those  who  are  unspotted  from 
the  world. 

What,  then,  is  the  relation  of  morality  to  reli- 
gion ?  It  is  the  relation  of  the  part  to  the  whole, 
of  the  smaller  to  the  larger  world,  of  the  ante- 
chamber to  the  presence-chamber,  of  companion- 
ship with  humanity  to  companionship  with  God. 
The  second  commandment,  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy 

1 "  Gott,  Gemiith,  und  Welt  "  :  — 

"  Willst  du  in's  Unendliche  schreiten, 
Geh'  nur  in's  Endliche  nach  alien  Seiten." 


244      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

neighbor,"  is  not  only  like  the  first,  "  Thou  shalt 
love  the  Lord,  thy  God  "  ;  it  is  in  reality  the  same 
commandment  in  a  preliminary  form.  Love  of 
one's  neighbor,  the  problem  of  ethics,  is  the  same 
task  of  self -adjustment  within  the  social  organism 
which  makes  the  problem  of  religion  in  the  uni- 
versal order.  Ethics  is  thus,  in  its  form,  identical 
with  religion,  but  in  its  content  distinct  from  reli- 
gion. The  interior  circle  of  conduct  is  in  itself 
complete,  but  it  is  environed  by  the  larger  circle. 
In  one  of  the  noblest  passages  of  ethical  litera- 
ture, Dr.  Martineau,  applying  the  analogy  suggested 
by  Kant,  describes  the  relation  of  duty  to  faith  as 
that  of  an  island  to  an  environing  ocean.1  The 
islander  has  firm  ground  under  his  feet,  he  may 
live  and  work  in  the  thickets  of  the  interior  and 
may  "  remain  quite  unaware  of  any  relations  beyond 
this  circle,  and  work  within  it  as  a  complete  and 
rounded  whole."  If,  however,  he  goes  up  some  day 
to  the  heights  of  his  conduct,  there,  on  every  side, 
he  finds  the  unexplored  and  mysterious  circle  of 
the  sea.  "  Ethics,  therefore,  on  their  outer  margin, 
bring  us  face  to  face  with  the  momentous  question, 
whether  their  supreme  intimations  are  verifiable, 
and  their  relations  eternal.  .  .  .  Conscience  may 
act  as  human,  before  it  is  discovered  to  be  divine. 
.  .  .  Ethics  must  either  perfect  themselves  in  re- 
ligion, or  disintegrate  themselves  into  Hedonism."  2 
"  Sometimes,"  said  Lowell,  translating  into  one  of 

i  "A  Study  of  Religion,"  1888,  I,  20  ff. 

2  Ibid.  pp.  16  ff.,  "  Why  Ethics  before  Religion  ?  " 


THE   ASCENT   OF   ETHICS  245 

the  highest  utterances  of  modern  poetry  this  phi- 
losophy of  life, 

"  Sometimes  at  waking,  on  the  street  sometimes, 
Or  on  the  hillside,  always  unforewarned, 
A  grace  of  being,  finer  than  himself, 
That  beckons  and  is  gone,  —  a  larger  life 
Upon  his  own  impinging,  .  .  . 
To  which  the  ethereal  substance  of  his  own 
Seems  but  gross  cloud  to  make  that  visible, 
Touched  to  a  sudden  glory  round  the  edge."1 

One  of  the  most  impressive  of  modern  preachers 
has  developed  the  same  thought  in  still  more  spa- 
cious language  under  the  title  of  "The  circular 
and  the  onward  movement."  2  In  the  solar  system 
where  we  dwell,  he  points  out,  there  are  two  forms 
of  motion,  first  the  rotation  of  the  planets  round 
the  sun,  and  secondly  a  vast  onward  movement, 
sweeping  both  sun  and  planets  in  infinitely  greater 
orbits  round  some  infinitely  distant  centre.  How 
is  it,  he  asks,  that  this  second  motion,  whose  scope 
is  beyond  all  observation,  can  be  proved?  The 
onward  movement,  he  answers,  is  discovered  through 
the  patient  observation  of  the  orbits  which  can  be 
seen.  Perturbations  in  the  solar  system  are  inter- 
pretable  only  by  conceiving  this  mighty  sweep  of  all 
which  can  be  observed  in  a  movement  which  is  in- 
visible. So,  says  this  inspiring  teacher,  the  system 
of  duty  lies  within  the  system  of  faith,  and  the  in- 

1  "The  Cathedral,"  1870,  p.  34. 

2  Mark  Hopkins,  "  Strength  and  Beauty,"  1874,  Sermon  XVI, 
p.  311. 


246      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

visible  truths  of  the  universal  order  are  disclosed  by 
the  patient  observation  of  the  smaller  system  where 
one's  duty,  in  its  orbit  of  daily  tasks,  revolves.1 

When  one  turns  from  these  discussions  of  mod- 
ern scholars  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  he  finds 
himself,  it  must  be  admitted,  in  quite  another 
climate  of  experience  and  expression.  Jesus  does 
not  speculate  concerning  the  relation  of  ethics  to 
religion  in  philosophical  language  or  by  astronom- 
ical analogies.  Without  apparent  consciousness 
of  logical  processes,  his  discourse  moves  freely 
among  the  problems  of  duty  and  faith;  yet  the 
ascent  of  ethics  to  religion,  which  these  modern 
masters  describe,  is  the  way  which  he  summons 
men  to  go.  Jesus  is,  first  of  all,  a  teacher  of 
morals.  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  an  ethical 
discourse.  The  Beatitudes  are  ethical  promises. 
Conduct  is  the  test  of  discipleship.  "Whosoever 
heareth  these  sayings  of  mine,  and  doeth  them,  I 
will  liken  him  unto  a  wise  man,  which  built  his  house 
upon  a  rock."  2  The  commendations  of  Jesus  are 
for  moral  fidelity,  conscientiousness,  watchfulness, 
unselfishness.  The  faithful  servant,  the  diligent 
woman,  the  watchman  at  the  gate,  the  maidens 
with  their  lamps  burning,  represent  the  moral  type 
which  he  desires  to  create.  When,  however,  these 
ethical  judgments  and  instructions  are  traced  by 

1  See  also,  G.  H.  Palmer,  "The  Field  of  Ethics,"  1901,  p.  187: 
"  Morality  precedes  religion,  but  morality  fulfils  itself  in  religion." 

2  Matt.  vii.  24. 


THE    ASCENT    OF   ETHICS  247 

Jesus  to  their  causes  or  their  consequences,  or 
are  explained  by  him  in  their  full  significance, 
they  are  taken  up  into  his  religious  consciousness, 
and  are  illuminated  by  his  sense  of  God.  Thus  at 
many  points  it  is  not  easy  to  say  whether  Jesus 
is  a  teacher  of  ethics  or  of  religion.  He  speaks 
of  conduct,  but  he  looks  past  conduct.  Phrases 
which  begin  in  one  key  end  in  another.  Tie 
radius  of  his  thought  prolongs  itself  from  the 
circle  of  duty  to  the  comprehensiveness  of  God. 
One  can  hardly  open  the  Gospels  without  coming 
on  an  illustration  of  this  transition  in  his  thought. 
The  Beatitudes,  for  example,  are  for  the  duty-doers, 
the  meek,  the  peacemakers,  the  pure  in  heart ;  but 
the  consequences  of  this  duty-doing  are  super- 
ethical,  the  inheritance  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven, 
the  title  of  the  children  of  God,  the  capacity  to  see 
God.  Character  is  the  object  of  the  teaching,  but 
character  is  discovered  to  be  a  part  of  the  Divine 
plan.  The  parables  of  Jesus  follow  the  same  path 
of  ascent,  and  though  their  way  runs  through  the 
valley  of  duty,  it  mounts  to  the  heights  of  faith. 
It  is  as  though  the  Teacher  lifted  his  eyes  while  he 
spoke,  and  saw,  as  those  who  listened  did  not  see, 
the  distant  view  beyond.  He  speaks  of  servants 
and  their  talents  ;  but  he  sees,  beyond  the  problem 
of  their  duty,  the  Lord  of  those  servants  who  will 
come  and  make  a  reckoning  with  them.  He 
speaks  of  the  sower  and  his  seed  ;  but  beyond  the 
sower's  task  he  sees  the  harvest  which  is  the  end 
of  the  world  and  the  reapers  who  are  the  angels. 


248      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

He  commends  the  porter  watching  at  the  gate,  but 
translates  his  fidelity  into  a  universal  law  :  "  What 
I  say  unto  you,  I  say  unto  all,  Watch !  "  He 
speaks,  with  infinite  pathos,  of  the  prodigal's  re- 
pentance, and  it  seems  a  purely  ethical  transition. 
The  boy  "  comes  to  himself,"  as  though  it  were  the 
recovery  by  himself  of  his  real  character ;  but  as 
Jesus  traces  farther  this  moral  regeneration,  he  sees 
in  it  another  factor  of  reform,  and  beyond  the  self- 
discovery  of  the  prodigal  hears  the  call  of  the  waiting 
Father.  Thus,  the  near  and  the  far,  the  con- 
temporary and  the  universal,  the  immediate  duty 
and  the  consummate  revelation,  are  so  intimately 
blended  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  that  as  it  ascends 
from  the  less  to  the  greater,  from  the  plains  of 
duty  to  the  summits  of  faith,  it  is  one  path  which 
he  follows,  unbroken  in  its  continuity  and  familiar 
to  his  feet.  The  point  of  departure  is  from  the 
obvious  facts  of  duty ;  but  the  path  of  duty  leads 
to  a  view  beyond  duty ;  the  corollaries  of  conduct 
give  significance  to  the  problem  of  conduct ;  to 
him  that  is  faithful  in  that  which  is  least  there  is 
added  the  capacity  for  faithfulness  in  that  which  is 
much,  and  for  him  who  learns  the  lesson  of  the 
Mammon  of  unrighteousness  there  are  reserved 
the  true  riches.  To  the  follower  of  Jesus  the 
ascent  of  ethics  is  like  the  ascent  of  a  mountain 
with  a  trustworthy  guide.  Through  the  level  facts 
of  duty  one  may  trudge  a  well-trodden  way ;  but 
as  the  slope  grows  more  precipitous,  and  the  plains 
of    commonplace   recede,   and   what    seems    the 


THE   ASCENT   OF    ETHICS  249 

summit  is  reached  only  to  disclose  a  higher  peak 
beyond,  the  climber  is  sustained  by  the  assurance 
that  the  guide  knows  the  path,  and  has  the  right 
to  say,  as  one  having  authority  :   "  Follow  me." 

One  may  begin  this  ascent  at  any  point  where 
one  strikes  the  path  of  duty.  Even  a  single  virtue 
or  repentance  or  resolution  gives  a  point  of  depar- 
ture. The  Canaanite  woman  says  in  self-abase- 
ment :  "  Lord,  help  me  "  ;  "  The  dogs  eat  of  the 
crumbs  which  fall  from  their  master's  table,"  and 
Jesus  welcomes  this  humble  teachableness  and 
says :  "  O  woman,  great  is  thy  faith." x  The 
father  of  the  sick  child  cries  :  "  Help  thou  mine 
unbelief " ;  and  Jesus  accepts  the  half-belief 
as  the  hesitating  beginnings  of  a  faith  to  which 
"all  things  are  possible."2  The  woman  "which 
was  a  sinner  "  has  little  to  offer  to  Jesus  but  the 
lavishness  of  her  love ;  but  Jesus  accepts  this 
also  and  says :  "  Her  sins,  which  are  many,  are 
forgiven ;  for  she  loved  much."  3  It  is  the  story  of 
the  growth  of  character  told  once  more,  but  ascend- 
ing from  character  to  faith.  Not  conscious  attain- 
ment, not  the  theological  satiety  of  the  Pharisee, 
but  each  genuine  impulse  of  humility  or  loyalty 
or  regret  has  in  it  the  potential  development 
of  Christian  faith.  "A  Christian,"  said  a  great 
German  theologian,  Julius  Miiller,  "  is  never  made, 
but  always  making.  He  therefore  that  is  already 
a  Christian  is  as  yet  not  a  Christian."  The  ethical 
method  of  Jesus  is  prophetic,  preliminary,  a  doctrine 

1  Matt.  xv.  27,  28.  2  Mark  ix.  23,  24.  *  Luke  vii.  47. 


250      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

of  the  way,  with  an   assurance  of   the   end,   the 
method  which,  as  Wordsworth  says, 

"  hath  among  least  things 
An  under-sense  of  greatest,  sees  the  parts 
As  parts,  but  with  a  feeling  of  the  whole." J 

Even  in  the  ministry  of  Jesus  himself  it  is,  per- 
haps, possible  to  trace  a  deepening  of  his  message, 
as  though  the  channel  of  his  teaching  were  broad- 
ened by  the  increasing  abundance  of  his  thought. 
In  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  is  described  in  the  language  of  ethical 
prophecy.  "  Whosoever  therefore  shall  break 
one  of  these  least  commandments  .  .  .  shall  be 
called  the  least  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven."2  In 
the  later  teaching,  however,  this  Kingdom  takes 
the  form  of  a  day  of  the  Lord  or  of  a  coming  of 
the  Son  of  Man  in  his  glory.  The  calm,  grave 
Teacher  of  righteousness  becomes  more  distinctly 
the  spiritual  Messiah,  whose  mission  is  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  Father's  will ;  and  instead  of  summa- 
rizing his  teaching  in  a  law  of  ethics,  "  Therefore 
all  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should 
do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them,"  3  he  expresses 
the  heart  of  it  in  a  prayer  of  faith :  "  Not  as  I 
will,  but  as  thou  wilt."  4 

Nor  does  this  influence  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
cease  at  the  Master's  death.  Jesus  seems  aware 
that  a  teacher  may  so  dominate  the  minds  of  his 

1  "  The  Prelude,"  Book  VII.  8  Matt.  vii.  12. 

2  Matt.  v.  19.  4  Matt.  xxvi.  39. 


THE   ASCENT    OF   ETHICS  25 1 

followers  that,  as  the  fourth  Gospel  says,  it  is 
expedient  for  him  to  go  away  if  the  Spirit  of 
truth  is  to  come  to  them.  That  is  what  the 
later  experience  of  the  disciples  seems  to  prove. 
"  Follow  me,"  he  teaches,  and  they  follow,  though 
with  hesitating  steps ;  but  the  Master's  death, 
which  seemed  the  end  of  their  hope,  becomes 
in  fact  the  beginning  of  their  ascent  from  obedi- 
ence to  faith.  Their  eyes  were  opened,  and  they 
knew  him,  says  the  third  Gospel,  as  he  vanished 
from  their  sight.  Not  till  they  tarried  in  the 
city  after  he  was  gone  were  they  "endued  with 
power  from  on  high." 1  This  is  the  tradition 
which  is  amplified  in  the  fourth  Gospel,  where 
Jesus  repeatedly  points  beyond  his  own  teaching 
for  its  interpretation.  "These  things  have  I 
spoken  unto  you,  being  yet  present  with  you.  But 
the  Comforter,  which  is  the  Holy  Ghost,  whom 
the  Father  will  send  in  my  name,  he  shall  teach 
you  all  things,  and  bring  all  things  to  your  remem- 
brance, whatsoever  I  have  said  unto  you."  2  The 
ascent  of  discipleship  was  to  be  continuous  and 
life-long,  a  progressive  revelation,  from  loyalty  to 
insight,  from  the  plains  of  duty-doing  to  the  heights 
of  communion,  from  things  to  God,  from  obedience 
to  vision,  from  the  teaching  of  Jesus  to  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Comforter,  from  the  righteousness  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God  to  the  truth  of  all  that  had 
been  said  unto  them.3 

1  Luke  xxiv.  49.  2  John  xiv.  25,  26. 

8  Compare  the  striking  treatment  of  E.  M.  Chapman,   "  The 


252      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

When  one  turns  from  contemplating  these  char- 
acteristics of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  and  recalls  the 
teachings  which  have  been  offered  in  his  name,  is  he 
not  met  at  many  points  by  a  most  disheartening  con- 
trast? Have  the  expositors  of  Christian  duty  and 
Christian  faith  consistently  recognized  that  in  the 
mind  of  Jesus  these  two  elements  of  experience  were 
parts  of  a  continuous  process  which  has  its  natural 
growth  and  fruit  ?  Have  the  elementary  facts  of  mo- 
rality been  "  seen  as  facts,"  yet  with  "a  feeling  of  the 
whole  "  ?  On  the  contrary,  much  well-intentioned 
teaching,  both  of  ethics  and  of  religion,  has  become, 
at  this  point,  self-defeating.  Morality  and  faith 
have  been  often  presented  as  fixed  alternatives, 
subjects  of  statical  sciences,  cases  where  one  must, 
so  to  speak,  take  all  or  none  ;  when,  in  fact,  mo- 
rality is,  according  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  not  a 
fixed  fact  but  a  way  of  ascent,  a  growth  from  less 
to  more,  a  movement  toward  religion. 

One  of  the  most  curious  of  literary  experiences  is 
the  sense  of  unreality  which  seems  to  pervade  a 
considerable  part  of  the  literature  of  ethics.  No 
subject,  it  would  seem,  could  be  more  living  than 
life,  and  ethics  is  the  study  of  life;  yet  many  a 
student  of  ethics  will  testify  that  its  text-books  have 

Dynamic  of  Christianity,"  1904,  p.  142:  "An  intelligent  man  who 
should  come  to  the  reading  of  the  Gospels  for  the  first  time  and 
without  theological  predisposition  would  doubtless  be  impressed 
with  Christ's  sense  of  the  partial  nature  of  His  own  work  in  the 
flesh."  p.  21:  "Christianity  is  not  a  completed  system  ...  but 
an  organism  .  .  .  with  the  power  of  an  endless  life." 


THE  ASCENT  OF  ETHICS  253 

appeared  to  him  singularly  desiccated  and  juiceless. 
"  Never  before,"  as  has  been  said  of  these  formal 
systems,  "  had  human  nature  been  so  neatly  dis- 
sected, so  handily  sorted  or  so  ornamentally  packed 
up.  The  virtues  and  vices,  the  appetites,  emotions, 
affections,  and  sentiments,  stored  each  in  their 
appointed  corner,  and  with  their  appropriate  label, 
to  wait  in  neat  expectation  for  the  season  of  the 
professional  lecturer,  and  the  literary  world  only 
delayed  their  acquiescence  in  a  uniform  creed  of 
moral  philosophy,  till  they  should  have  arranged  to 
their  satisfaction  whether  the  appetites  should  be 
secreted  in  the  cupboard  or  paraded  on  the  mantel- 
piece, or  whether  some  of  the  less  creditable  pack- 
ets ..  .  ought  to  be  ticketed  '  Poison.' " * 

What  is  it  which  reduces  the  study  of  life  to  such 
lifelessness,  and  makes  the  language  of  life  a  dead 
language?  It  is  the  assumption  that  ethical  dis- 
tinctions are  fixtures,  when,  in  fact,  the  life  of  con- 
duct grows,  withers,  and  takes  heart  again,  as  the 
flowers  of  the  field  struggle  for  their  existence 
among  the  weeds.  The  schools  of  ethical  philoso- 
phy with  their  historic  titles,  Egoism,  Prudentialism, 
Idealism,  are  not  final  choices,  as  though  one  must 
commit  himself  to  a  single  and  consistent  view  of  life. 
One's  moral  experience  must  be,  on  the  contrary,  very 
meagre  if  it  does  not  recognize  in  itself  all  three  of 
these  competing  creeds,  and  incline  in  turn  to  differ- 

1  Cited  by  J.  C.  Shairp,  "  Studies  in  Poetry  and  Philosophy," 
1872,  "The  Moral  Motive-power,"  p.  272:  "'Never  before,'  as 
one  has  smartly  said."     Who  was  it  ? 


254      JESUS    CHRIST   AND   CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

ent  masters.  At  one  moment  one  is  a  disciple  of 
Hobbes,  and  all  that  masks  itself  as  duty  seems  to 
show  the  mocking  face  of  self-interest ;  again,  one 
joins  himself  to  Mill  or  Bentham  and  computes  the 
consequences  of  pleasures  and  pains;  still  again, 
in  some  high  moment  of  joy  or  sorrow  or  love,  one 
goes  up  where  selfishness  and  prudence  shrink 
into  insignificance,  as  the  details  of  a  flat  country 
recede  when  one  looks  down  on  it  from  a  height. 
The  great  peaks  of  idealism  come  into  view  and 
call  one  to  their  exploration  and  possession,  and 
one  calls  back  to  them, — 

"  Wait  there,  wait  and  invite  me  while  I  climb, 

For  see  I  come  !  but  slow,  but  slow, 

Yet  ever,  as  your  chime 

Soft  and  sublime 

Lifts  at  my  feet,  they  move,  they  go 

Up  the  great  stair  of  time."1 

Ethics,  in  other  words,  if  it  would  describe  life  as 
it  is,  must  take  account  of  its  quality  of  surprise, 
must  welcome  the  broader  horizon  which  unfolds 
as  one  ascends,  the  influx  of  new  power  as  one 
breathes  the  higher  air,  the  increasing  sense  of 
reality  and  authority  in  the  moral  ideal.  One  may 
be  very  selfish,  but  he  is  never  safe  from  inroads 
of  generous  desire ;  he  may  be  habitually  pruden- 
tial, as  one  who  sits  on  the  shores  of  emotion  and 
does  not  trust  himself  to  its  depths  ;  but  in  some  un- 
foreseen moment  of  self-forgetfulness  a  great  wave 
of  emotion  sweeps  up  upon  him  and  snatches  him 
from  his  security  into  the  ocean  of  self-sacrifice. 

1  David  A.  Wasson,  "Poems,"  ed.  Mrs.  E.  D.  Cheney,  1888, 
• Ideals." 


THE   ASCENT    OF    ETHICS  255 

"  Just  when  we  are  safest,  there's  a  sunset-touch, 
A  fancy  from  a  flower-bell,  some  one's  death, 
A  chorus-ending  from  Euripides,  — 
And  that's  enough  for  fifty  hopes  and  fears 
As  old  and  new  at  once  as  nature's  self, 
To  rap  and  knock  and  enter  in  our  soul, 
Take  hands  and  dance  there,  a  fantastic  ring, 
Round  the  ancient  idol,  on  his  base  again."  x 

The  same  truth  has  an  opposite  and  more  solemn 
aspect.  Idealism  may  ebb  as  it  has  risen;  the 
vision  splendid  may  fade  into  the  light  of  common 
day ;  and  instead  of  an  ascent  of  ethics  there  may 
ensue  the  real  fall  of  man,  the  shortening  of  the 
radius  of  duty,  the  narrowing  of  the  circle  of  obli- 
gation. Capacity  for  moral  growth  means  risk  of 
moral  decay.  It  is  this  appreciation  of  the  remoter 
consequences  of  conduct  which,  in  the  teaching  of 
Jesus,  gives  such  significance  to  each  lapse  from 
integrity  and  each  petty  sin.  Moral  experience  is 
seen,  not  as  a  series  of  disconnected  incidents,  but 
as  a  continuous  process,  in  which  each  stumble 
retards  the  ascent  and  each  blunder  misses  the 
way.  "  Every  idle  word  that  men  shall  speak," 
says  Jesus,  "  they  shall  give  account  thereof  in  the 
day  of  judgment."2  The  reckless  speech  hangs 
round  the  climber's  neck,  and  though  he  may  still 
ascend,  he  must  carry  his  burden  to  the  top  and 
give  account  of  his  delay.  Ethics,  in  short,  is  not 
a  piecing  together  of  the  fragments  of  life,  but  a 
description  of  the  whole  of  life,  the  story  of  the 

1  Browning,  "  Bishop  Blougram's  Apology." 

2  Matt  xii.  36. 


v    or  rnr 


•  1RS1TY 


256      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

retarded  yet  persistent  ascent  of  man,  its  gains  and 
its  pains,  its  advances  and  its  pauses,  its  higher 
levels  and  its  breathlessness,  its  detaining  selfish- 
ness and  its  inviting  ideals.  It  is  all  one  life,  be- 
ginning in  the  valley  of  commonplace  duties  and 
idle  words,  and  proceeding  to  the  vision  of  truth 
and  the  day  of  judgment.  The  will  to  do  the  will 
takes  up  the  march,  and  the  knowledge  of  the 
doctrine  broadens  as  one  climbs. 

This  sense  of  continuity  is  the  first  principle  of 
a  sound  education  in  morals.  Why  is  it  that  chil- 
dren so  often  find  goodness  uninteresting  and  repel- 
ling, and  wrong-doing  persuasive  and  exhilarating  ? 
Why  does  the  routine  of  duty  so  often  become,  to 
grown  people,  monotonous  or  trivial  ?  It  is  because 
goodness  is  looked  at  as  a  fixed  condition,  a  dead 
weight,  a  pile  of  duties  to  carry  one  by  one  to  their 
proper  places,  and  then  perhaps  to  carry  back 
again.  The  woman  in  her  household,  the  man  with 
the  hoe,  the  boy  at  his  lessons,  the  worker  at  his 
work,  —  what  are  they  but  slaves  and  drudges, 
with  the  duty  done  to-day  confronting  them  again 
with  its  inert  mass  to-morrow  ?  What  is  their  life 
but  a  treadmill,  in  which  they  seem  to  move ;  but  in 
reality,  like  the  horse  in  a  treadmill,  only  move  the 
wheels  of  the  world  from  the  pen  in  which  they 
are  tied  fast  ?  "  Sir,"  said  an  employee  in  a  vast 
government  bureau  as  he  looked  up  from  his 
death-bed  to  a  friend  who  spoke  of  death,  "  why 
talk  of  death  ?  I  have  been  dead  and  buried  here 
for  twenty  years." 


THE   ASCENT   OF   ETHICS  257 

Nor  is  it  alone  the  workers  of  the  world  who 
find  duty  on  these  terms  a  dehumanizing  slavery. 
Many  who  seem  most  free  from  the  burden  of 
routine  —  the  idlers,  the  pleasure-seekers,  the  in- 
creasing army  of  the  prosperous  unemployed  — 
are  not  less  oppressed  by  a  sense  of  the  insignifi- 
cance, the  triviality,  the  meaninglessness  of  life, 
and  when  they  attach  themselves  to  any  philosophy 
of  duty  become  docile  converts  to  a  creed  of  de- 
spair. Restlessness,  despondency,  ennui,  are  not 
so  much  products  of  work  as  of  leisure ;  cynicism, 
pessimism,  and  self -contempt  afflict  the  lives  which 
seem  most  blessed.  Why  take  this  paltry  human 
life,  they  ask,  so  seriously  ?  What  is  it  but  a  mo- 
mentary bubble  on  the  surface  of  an  unknown  deep  ? 
Why  strive  and  sweat  to  build  a  straight  highway 
of  conduct  with  the  stones  of  duty,  when  the 
wandering  path  of  pleasure  is  unobstructed  and 
fair?  What  is  one's  life  but  a  descent  into  the 
dark,  the  flight  of  a  bird,  as  the  Saxon  warrior  said 
to  the  Venerable  Bede,  out  of  the  darkness  into 
the  banquet  hall,  and  out  again  into  the  night  ? 

"  A  moment's  halt  —  a  momentary  taste 
Of  Being  from  the  well  amid  the  waste  — 
And  lo  !  —  the  phantom  Caravan  has  reach'd 
The  Nothing  it  set  out  from  —  oh,  make  haste  ! "  x 

What  is  it  which  redeems  life  from  this  sense  of 
flatness  and  impotence,  and  restores  to  duty  its 
significance  and  scope?      It  is    the  truth  of    the 

1  Fitzgerald's  "  Omar  Khayyam,"  54. 


258      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

ascent  of  ethics;  the  emergence  of  idealism;  the 
translation  of  duty-doing  into  faith.      To  find  in 
J  the  routine  of  life,  not  a  series  of  disconnected  ac- 
1  cidents,  but  the  participation  in  an  Infinite  design ; 
I  to  follow  the  way  of  duty  until  it  mounts  to  insight, 
\  composure,  courage^  to  discover   that   the  inter- 
pretation of   life  must  be  reached,  not  by  going 
round  one's  duties,  but  by  going  through  them; 
that  to  him  only  who  is  faithful  in  the  least  that 
which  is  much  is  revealed  —  this  js  what  rescues 
life  from  fragmentariness  and  fixedness,  and  gives, 
one,  even  among  laborious  and  monotonous  duties^ 
la  sense  of  unity,  movement,  anihopeV  "The  senti- 
ment of  virtue,"  says  Emerson,  "  is  the  essence  of 
all  religion.     Whilst  a  man  seeks  good  ends,  he  is 
strong  by  the  whole  strength  of  nature.  .  .  .    When 
he  says,  ■  I  ought  '.  .  .  then  he  can  worship,  and  be 
enlarged  by  his  worship.  ...     In  the  sublimest 
flights  of  the  soul,  rectitude  is  never  surmounted."  * 
I     This  is  the  view  of  life  which  meets  us  both  in 
!  the  teaching  and  in  the  character  of  Jesus  Christ. 
nis  ethics  speak,  not  of  stones  to  be  moved,  but 
of  seeds  to  be  planted.     The  routine  of   life  is 
to  Jesus  the  background  on  which  he  paints  his 
picture  of  God's  thought  for  man.     The  disciple 
of  Jesus  is  like  a  soldier  at  the  front,  involved  in 
much  routine  of  marching  and  counter-marching; 
solitary,  it  may  be,  as  he  paces  up  and  down  a 
sentry's  beat ;  but  through  all  the  monotony  and 
solitude  sustained  by  the  sense  that  he  is  under 

1  "Miscellanies,"  1868,  Divinity  School  Address,  pp.  66  ff. 


THE   ASCENT    OF    ETHICS  259 

orders,  and  that  the  Commander  whose  will  has 
sent  him  is  at  his  back.  The  follower  of  Jesus  is 
a  laborer,  but  he  is  a  laborer  together  with  God. 
He  is  the  man  with  a  hoe,  but  he  has  his  part  in 
the  harvest  whose  reapers  are  the  angels.  He 
is  a  cog  in  the  great  machine  of  industry,  but  the 
whole  great  machine  depends  on  the  strength  of 
each  slightest  cog,  and  each  failure  of  the  humblest 
part  mars  the  fabric  which  issues  from  the  whole. 
The  Christian  life  trudges  through  the  valleys, 
but  its  face  is  set  to  the  hills.  It  moves,  as  a 
modern  teacher  has  said,  "  from  small  moral  mat- 
ters up  to  large  religious  ones.  The  road  up  is 
man's  natural  path.  It  may  see  in  the  little  the 
large,  and  may  look  through  the  finite  limited  duty 
into  the  friendly  face  of  the  eternal. 

1  Who  sweeps  a  room  as  to  Thy  laws 
Makes  that  and  the  action  fine.1 " 1 

What  is  the  effect  of  this  view  of  life  on  the 
problems  of  practical  conduct  which  perplex  so 
many  minds  in  the  modern  world?  When  one 
observes  the  way  in  which  practical  morality  con- 
ducts itself  under  the  conditions  of  the  present  age, 
its  dealing  with  new  duties,  its  experiments  in 
philanthropy,  its  schemes  for  industrial  or  politi- 
cal justice,  he  is  struck  by  the  tentative,  wavering, 
undetermined  line  which  marks  the  movement  of 
ethics.  No  directing  principle  or  manifest  end 
seems  to  give  confidence  to  contemporary  morals. 

1  Palmer,  "  Field  of  Ethics,"  1901,  183  ff. 


260      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

To  many  modern  minds  religion  has  become  a 
remote,  if  not  an  unreal,  support;  and  they  must 
determine  their  duty  by  ephemeral,  empirical, 
hand-to-mouth  choices  between  the  worse  and  the 
better.  To  many  devoted  lives,  concerned  with 
problems  of  philanthropy,  no  issue  of  their  enter- 
prise seems  clear,  and  they  are  smitten  with  a 
sense  of  helplessness,  a  paralysis  of  enthusiasm, 
as  those  who  have  undertaken  more  than  can  be 
performed.  To  many  who  have  pledged  them- 
selves to  industrial  or  political  reform,  the  signs  of 
the  times  seem  ominous,  the  prevailing  philosophy 
of  the  working-classes  seems  blighted  by  materi- 
alism, and  instead  of  national  ethics  we  seem  to  be 
offered  mere  statistics  of  products  or  ships  or  guns. 
What  is  it  under  such  conditions  which  can 
restore  to  duty-doing  its  confidence,  and  to  philan- 
thropy its  patience,  and  to  industrial  and  political 
morals  their  idealism  ?  It  is  the  appreciation  of 
the  ascent  of  ethics,  the  discovery  of  the  continu- 
ity of  conduct,  the  recognition  of  the  cumulative 
movement,  which  proceeds  through  the  temporal 
toward  the  Eternal.  How  shall  one  act  who  finds 
duty  real,  but  faith  a  receding  vision?  There  is 
but  one  path  to  the  rediscovery  of  faith,  and  it  runs 
straight  through  the  duty  which  is  real.  "  It  is  an 
awful  moment,"  said  Frederick  Robertson,  "when 
the  soul  begins  to  find  that  the  props  on  which  it 
has  blindly  rested  so  long  are,  many  of  them,  rot- 
ten, and  begins  to  suspect  them  all.  ...  In  that 
fearful  loneliness  of  spirit  ...  I  know  but  one  way 


THE   ASCENT   OF   ETHICS  26l 

in  which  a  man  may  come  forth  from  his  agony 
scatheless;  it  is  by  holding  fast  to  those  things 
which  are  certain  still  —  the  grand,  simple  land- 
marks of  morality.  ...  If  there  be  no  God  and  no 
future  state,  yet  even  then  it  is  better  to  be  gener- 
ous than  selfish,  better  to  be  chaste  than  licentious, 
better  to  be  true  than  false,  better  to  be  brave  than 
to  be  a  coward.  .  .  .  Thrice  blessed  is  he  who  — 
when  all  is  drear  and  cheerless — has  obstinately 
clung  to  moral  good.  Thrice  blessed,  because  his 
night  shall  pass  into  clear,  bright  day."  1  This,  if 
there  be  any  way  to  a  revival  of  religion,  is  the  way 
now  open ;  —  not  by  the  assent  to  opinions,  but  by 
the  ascent  of  ethics.  There  are  not  two  ways  of 
life  running  parallel  through  experience,  —  a  way 
of  duty  and  a  way  of  faith.  The  way  to  God  is  up 
the  steep  path  of  duty,  and  the  vision  and  peace  of 
God  are  for  those  who  climb.  This  is  the  con- 
viction which  gives  persistency  and  fidelity  to  duty- 
doing.  Life  may  not  be  all  at  once  understood, 
but  the  horizon  of  life  broadens  as  the  path  of 
duty  ascends,  and  one  may  bear  with  many  ob- 
scurities and  hindrances  along  the  path  if  he 
knows  that  he  has  not  missed  his  way.  To  one 
who  sees  what  is  right,  and  wants  to  find  what  is 
true,  the  best  rule  is  the  simple  maxim  :  "  Turn  to 
the  Right  and  keep  straight  on."  2 

The  same   discovery  is   made  by  modern  phi- 

lMLife  and   Letters,"    1882,   p.    86,   from    a   Lecture  to   the 
Workingmen  of  Brighton. 

2  "  Both    Catholics    and    Prctestants    have    taught  {Spectator, 


262      JESUS   CHRIST   AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

lanthropy.  How  to  maintain  faith  in  one's  own 
usefulness,  how  to  be  patient  with  its  incomplete- 
ness and  yet  believe  in  its  significance  —  this  is  the 
harassing  sense  of  discouragement  and  scepticism 
which  attacks  many  a  servant  of  others'  needs. 
There  is  but  one  way  to  the  restoration  of  social 
courage.  It  is  by  the  practical  following  of  the 
path  of  social  duty  and  the  discovery  that  it  is  an 
ascending  path,  with  constantly  broader  outlooks 
and  clearer  views.  What  seems  a  fragmentary  and 
ineffective  task  is  taken  up  into  the  total  movement 
of  social  responsibility,  and  one  is  lifted  and  sus- 
tained by  a  faith  which  his  works  may  not  seem 
to  justify,  but  to  which  none  the  less  they  point 
the  way.  The  modern  charity-worker,  tempted  by 
many  failures  to  loss  of  hope  and  courage,  takes 
heart  again  from  the  reviving  words:  — 

"  Cleave  ever  to  the  sunnier  side  of  doubt, 
And  cling  to  Faith  beyond  the  forms  of  Faith! 

She  sees  the  Best  that  glimmers  thro'  the  Worst, 
She  feels  the  Sun  is  hid  but  for  a  night, 
She  spies  the  summer  thro'  the  winter  bud, 

She  finds  the  fountain  where  they  wail'd  '  Mirage  I  •■** 

November  12,  1904,  quoting  Daily  Telegraph  of  November  I  and 
J.  F.  de  Bruno's  "  Catholic  Belief,")  that  there  is  a  '  Body  of  the 
Church '  and  a  '  Soul  of  the  Church,'  and  that  to  the  latter  belong 
hundreds  and  thousands  of  men  and  women  who  could  not,  not 
anyhow  at  present,  make  explicitly  even  a  short  confession  of  faith. 
The  Catholic  teaching  '  holds  that  these  Christians  belong  to  and 
are  united  to  the  Soul  of  the  Catholic  Church.'  " 
1  Tennyson,  "  The  Ancient  Sage." 


\ 


THE   ASCENT    OF   ETHICS  263 

Many  a  helper  of  the  poor  is  led  by  his  patient 
service  among  them  not  only  to  freedom  from 
himself,  but  also  to  the  renewal  of  his  faith  in 
the  moral  order  of  the  world.  Seeking  the  King- 
dom of  God  other  things  are  added.  To  love  one's 
neighbor  as  oneself  has  as  its  corollary  a  new 
appreciation  of  the  Love  which  rules  the  world. 
The  work  of  philanthropy  turns  out  to  be  not  a 
series  of  incidental  skirmishes,  but  a  great  cam- 
paign of  compassion ;  and  courage  returns  when 
one  becomes  aware  that  he  is  not  of  "  an  ignorant 
army  clashing  in  the  dark,"  but  that  the  ascent  of 
duty  discloses  the  plan  of  the  campaign. 

Finally,  the  affairs  of  modern  industry  and  poli- 
tics are  to  be  redeemed  by  the  same  recognition  of 
the  ascent  of  ethics.  Commercialism,  materialism, 
and  militarism  have  become  so  dominant  and  auda- 
cious that  many  lives  are  repelled  from  public 
affairs  and  many  more  are  subdued  to  that  they 
work  in,  like  the  dyer's  hand.  It  seems  a  long 
way  from  industrial  contentions  and  political  am- 
bitions to  the  Christian  vision  of  a  Kingdom  of  God, 
and  ethical  idealists  are  easily  tempted  to  become 
social  pessimists.  Yet  through  precisely  this  re- 
gion of  life,  where  the  keenest  interests  of  the 
modern  world  are  concentrated,  through  the  treach- 
erous ways  of  .business  where  one  must  pick  his 
steps  or  fall,  through  the  mire  of  political  corrup- 
tion where  many  sink,  goes  the  path  of  modern 
duty ;  and  in  this  low  ground,  where  the  life  of  the 
time  for  the  moment  halts,  the  ascent  of  ethics  must 


264      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

begin.  It  is  in  vain  to  set  the  higher  life  of  the  time 
over  against  its  lower  life,  as  though  they  looked  at 
each  other  across  the  way.  It  is  one  world,  with 
one  way  of  progress,  which  begins  in  the  malarial 
valleys  and  ascends  to  the  purer  heights.  "  If  any 
man  among  you  seem  to  be  religious,"  says  the 
apostle,  "and  bridleth  not  his  tongue,  .  .  .  this 
man's  religion  is  vain."  x  It  is  the  same  with  any 
nation  which  thinketh  itself  to  be  religious,  but 
finds  some  other  starting-point  for  national  religion 
than  in  industrial  justice  and  political  integrity. 
Here  is  the  ground  of  confidence  for  those  who 
in  these  muddy  places  of  public  life  make  firm  the 
road  which  social  morality  must  go.  They  may 
not  themselves  accomplish  the  complete  ascent  of 
ethics,  but  they  are  at  least  preparing  the  way. 
The  ladder  of  social  progress  may  some  day  reach 
to  heaven,  but  it  must  be  none  the  less  set  up  on 
earth ;  and  those  who  set  it  firmly  on  the  ground 
make  it  safer  for  the  angels  to  ascend.2 

1  James  i.  26. 

2  Precisely  the  opposite  course  of  argument  is  illustrated  by  M. 
Guyau  in  his  two  volumes :  "  Esquisse  d'une  Morale  sans  Obligation 
ni  Sanction,"  1903  ;  and  " L'Irreligion  de  l'Avenir,"  1904.  "The 
Moralist,"  he  warns  us,  "  is  tempted  to  invoke  a  law  superior  to 
life  itself,  a  law  intelligible,  eternal,  supernatural."  Ethics  must  be 
withheld  from  this  vain  idealism  and  reconstructed  from  the  mate- 
rial of  physical  instincts  and  social  hopes.  Instead  of  the  sense  of 
obligation  disclosing  opportunity,  it  is  the  sense  of  opportunity 
which  creates  obligations.  Duty  will  step  more  firmly  if  it  ceases 
to  look  up. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  DESCENT   OF  FAITH 

The  ascent  of  ethics  is  a  cardinal  doctrine  of  the 
teaching  of  Jesus.  The  normal  development  of 
the  Christian  character,  the  straight  path  of  Chris- 
tian discipleship,  leads  from  duty-doing  to  faith, 
from  obligation  to  revelation,  from  fidelity  in  that 
which  is  least  to  possession  of  the  true  riches,  from 
the  plain  of  ethics  to  the  heights  of  religion.  It 
cannot  escape  notice,  however,  that  this  logic  of 
discipleship,  though  it  be  explicitly  taught  by 
Jesus,  does  not  seem  to  represent  the  logic  of  his 
own  mind.  As  one  surveys  the  Gospels  he  does 
not  see  Jesus  pressing  his  way  upward  along  the 
path  of  duty  until  the  horizon  of  God's  purpose 
expands  before  his  thought.  On  the  contrary, 
Jesus  seems  most  at  home  when  on  the  heights, 
and  his  habitual  path  leads  rather  downward,  from 
the  consciousness  of  God  to  the  service  of  men, 
than  upward,  from  human  duties  to  Divine  com- 
panionship. His  view  of  life  is  a  view  from  above. 
From  the  beginning  of  the  record  he  is  seen  to  be 
about  his  Father's  business,  as  if  in  his  Father's 
house.  All  things  are  delivered  unto  him  of  his 
Father.1     One  is  his  Father  which  is  in  heaven.2 

1  Matt.  xi.  27.  2  Matt,  xxiii.  9. 

265 


266      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

The  sources  of  spiritual  strength  and  peace  for 
Jesus  are  not  in  his  human  affections  and  associa- 
tions, however  precious  these  may  be,  but  in  his 
communion  with  the  Father.  He  pauses  in  his 
busy  life  of  teaching  and  healing,  and  seeks  a  soli- 
tude which  is  to  him  companionship,  to  return  with 
a  fresh  accession  of  confidence  and  authority.  He 
withdraws  in  a  boat  to  a  desert  place  apart ; 1  he 
goes  up  into  a  mountain  apart  to  pray,  and  when 
the  even  is  come  he  is  there  alone ; 2  he  brings  his 
chosen  friends  into  a  high  mountain  apart,  and 
is  transfigured  before  them.3  "Come  ye  your- 
selves apart,"  he  says  to  his  friends,  .  .  .  "and  rest 
a  while,  for  there  were  many  coming  and  going."4 
The  horizon  of  his  faith  seems  shut  in  by  the  press- 
ure of  work  and  care,  and  he  goes  up  for  his  re- 
freshing to  some  place  of  larger  outlook  where  he 
may  see  life  as  it  really  is.  He  is  like  a  man  whose 
native  air  is  in  the  mountains,  and  who  brings  the 
strength  of  the  hills  down  to  the  weary  world  be- 
low. All  this  is  but  to  say  once  more,  that  Jesus 
is  primarily  not  an  ethical,  but  a  religious,  Teacher. 
He  finds  his  duty  through  his  consciousness  of  God 
instead  of  finding  God  through  his  consciousness 
of  duty.  His  doctrine  of  character  is  the  corollary 
rather  than  the  cause  of  his  religious  faith. 

Does  not  this  essentially  religious  quality  in  the 
ministry  of  Jesus  appear  to  nullify  all  that  has  been 
said  of  the  ascent  of  ethics  ?     Is  it  true  that  he 

1  Matt.  xiv.  13.  *  Matt.  xvii.  1,  2. 

2  Matt.  xiv.  23.  4  Mark  vi.  31. 


THE    DESCENT    OF    FAITH  267 

teaches  the  slow  growth  of  character  from  duty  to 
insight,  or,  if  he  does  so  teach,  does  not  the  testi- 
mony of  his  own  experience  contradict  the  teach- 
ing ?  Does  he  not,  first  of  all,  demand  one  supreme 
act  of  faith,  and  in  that  change  of  the  heart's  de- 
sire change  all  the  motives  of  character  ?  Is  he 
not  rather  a  Revealer  than  a  Redeemer,  Son  of 
God  rather  than  Son  of  Man  ?  Should  not  his 
teaching  read,  "  He  that  knoweth  the  doctrine  will 
do  the  will,"  rather  than,  "  He  that  doeth  the  will 
shall  know  of  the  doctrine  "  ? 

This  is  the  impression  which  has  been  made  by 
the  Gospels  on  many  minds.  The  theological  and 
dramatic  element  in  the  record,  its  disclosure  of  the 
purpose  of  God  and  the  place  of  Jesus  in  that  pur- 
pose,—  what  has  been  called  the  "self-assertion" 
of  Jesus,  —  has  appeared  to  be  so  dominating  and 
significant,  that  it  has  seemed  to  be  trifling,  if  not 
irreverent,  to  give  serious  consideration  to  Jesus 
as  a  teacher  of  character.1  His  ministry  has  ap- 
peared to  move  on  quite  another  level,  and  to  be 
primarily  concerned  not  with  conduct,  but  with 
faith.     His  teaching  is  of   life  with   God  rather 

1  This  view  is  maintained  with  unusual  power  and  candor  by 
D.  S.  Cairns,  Contemporary  Review,  November,  1903,  January,  1904, 
"Christianity  in  the  Modern  World";  September,  1904,  "The 
Self-Assertion  of  Jesus,"  p.  522:  "The  Gospel  is  not  simply  a  new 
interpretation  of  the  standing  facts  and  laws  of  the  world,  but  a 
great  cosmic  event,  the  coming  of  God  to  his  world  after  a  new 
fashion  ";  p.  532 :  "  The  great  movement  of  Christological  thought 
...  is  directly  due  to  the  deliberate  and  conscious  action  of  the 
Founder  of  Christianity." 


268      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

than  of  duties  to  men.  The  ascent  of  ethics,  with 
its  laborious  advance,  finds,  according  to  such 
minds,  no  confirmation  in  the  confident  and  con- 
tinuous faith  of  Jesus,  which  descends  from  the 
heights  of  Divine  communion  to  make  God  known 
to  men.  "  No  man  knoweth  the  Father  save  the 
Son,  and  he  to  whomsoever  the  Son  will  reveal 
him."1 

This  sense  of  contradiction  between  the  ethics 
of  Jesus  and  his  religion  fails,  however,  to  take 
account  of  the  chronology  of  his  experience.  The 
Gospels,  it  must  be  remembered,  do  not  undertake 
to  narrate  the  entire  life  of  Jesus,  but,  with  a  few 
fragmentary  additions,  only  the  story  of  its  last 
years.  We  see  the  Teacher  at  the  height  of  his 
power,  speaking  with  authority,  saying  to  the 
weary  and  heavy-laden :  "  Come  unto  me  "  ;  but 
we  do  not  see  the  path  of  spiritual  education  and 
self-discipline  by  which  he  has  reached  this  height. 
Unless  the  life  of  Jesus  be  regarded  as  wholly 
detached  from  human  processes  of  development, 
and  therefore  wholly  valueless  as  a  human  exam- 
ple, it  must  have  had  its  years  of  moral  growth 
and  patient  ripening  of  character  before  the  ful- 
ness of  its  time  was  come.  The  glimpses  given 
by  the  record  of  the  childhood  of  Jesus  indicate 
this  development  of  obedience,  thoughtfulness,  and 
charm.  The  boy  goes  down  with  his  parents  to 
Nazareth  and  is  "subject  unto  them";  he  "grew 
and  waxed  strong  in  spirit,  filled  with  wisdom"; 

1  Matt.  xi.  27;  Luke  x.  22. 


THE   DESCENT    OF    FAITH  269 

he  "  increased  in  wisdom  and  stature,  and  in  favor 
with  God  and  man." 1  Between  these  glimpses  of 
the  boy  and  the  work  of  the  man  lie  unrecorded 
years  of  spiritual  growth,  from  which  Jesus  is 
summoned  by  the  preaching  of  the  Baptist,  and 
which  have  armed  him  to  meet  the  triple  tempta- 
tion of  conscious  power.  It  cannot,  therefore,  be 
inferred  from  the  height  of  religious  insight  which 
Jesus  has  gained  when  his  ministry  begins  that  he 
has  not  reached  that  height  by  the  path  of  duty. 
When  he  speaks  of  character  as  the  way  of  faith, 
he  is  describing  a  way  on  which,  indeed,  he  now 
looks  down,  but  by  which  he  himself  has  come. 
He  too  knows  the  ascent  of  duty,  and  through 
obedience  and  restraint  has  come  at  last  to  the 
spacious  horizon  which  his  religious  consciousness 
surveys. 

What  is  of  more  concern,  however,  than  the 
chronology  of  experience  in  Jesus  is  the  law  of 
conduct  which  governs  him  when  he  has  thus 
reached  the  heights.  The  way  by  which  he  may 
have  ascended  is  less  important  than  the  way  by 
which  he  is  now  called  to  go.  His  character,  we 
may  surmise,  has  "grown  and  waxed  strong,"  like 
other  characters ;  and  when  he  teaches  that  obedi- 
ence is  the  path  to  knowledge,  and  that  the  pure 
in  heart  see  God,  he  is  but  reporting  that  which  he 
has  learned  through  twenty  silent  years.  When, 
however,  he  has  reached  the  height  of  the  con- 
sciousness of  God,  it  would  seem  as  if  the  end  of 

1  Luke  ii.  40,  51,  52. 


270      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

duty-doing  were  attained,  and  that  he  had  but  to 
point  to  the  wide  horizon  which  he  sees.  His 
mission  would  seem  to  culminate  in  some  such 
testimony  of  high  experience  as  is  contained  in  the 
closing  discourses  of  the  fourth  Gospel :  "  O  right- 
eous Father,  the  world  hath  not  known  thee :  but 
I  have  known  thee  "  ;  "  Glorify  thy  Son,  that  thy 
Son  also  may  glorify  thee." 1 

Such,  however,  is  not  the  final  expression  of  his 
religious  faith.  Having  ascended  to  this  intimate 
communion  with  the  Father,  there  is  set  before 
Jesus  a  new  compulsion,  —  the  obligation  to  de- 
scend with  these  resources  of  power  and  peace  to 
the  world  of  duty  which  he  had  just  left  below.  No 
sooner  is  the  ascent  of  ethics  accomplished  than  it 
is  succeeded  by  the  descent  of  faith ;  and  the  second 
law  of  conduct  is,  in  imperativeness  and  persuasive- 
ness, like  the  first.  It  is  impressive  to  observe  how 
often  Jesus  departs  from  human  companionship  to 
renew  his  strength  in  communion  with  God ;  but 
more  impressive  than  this  departure  is  his  quick 
return  to  the  patient  fulfilment  of  his  human  task. 
At  evening  he  is  on  the  mountain  alone,  but  "  in  the 
fourth  watch  "  of  the  same  night  he  is  helping  his 
friends  in  their  boat.2  He  departs  "  by  ship  into 
a  desert  place  apart,"  8  but  is  "  moved  with  compas- 
sion "  for  the  multitude  and  comes  forth  and  heals 
their  sick.  He  is  in  a  high  mountain  apart  trans- 
figured, and  his  companions  find  it  good  to  stay ; 

1  John  xvii.  25,  1.  2  Matt.  xiv.  25;  Mark  vi.  48. 

*  Matt.  xiv.  13;  Mark  vi.  32;  Luke  iv.  42. 


THE   DESCENT    OF    FAITH  27 1 

but  Jesus  hears  the  cry  of  the  epileptic  at  the 
mountain's  foot  and  descends  quickly  from  the 
company  of  the  Prophets  to  heal  the  boy.1  The 
religion  of  Jesus  is  thus  at  every  point  an  applied  re- 
ligion. He  teaches  no  ascent  of  ethics  which  leaves 
one  on  the  Mount.  His  source  of  power  is  above, 
but  his  use  of  power  is^below.  "He  that  descended," 
says  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  "is  the  same 
also  that  ascended."  2  Whatever  effort  it  may  have 
cost  to  find  the  upward  path  makes  it  easier  for 
him  to  follow  the  same  path  downward.  A  slow 
ascent  of  duty  to  the  horizon  of  God,  a  quick 
glance,  a  long  breath,  a  far-away  look,  and  then 
the  descent  of  faith  to  the  plains  of  human  need  — 
such  is  the  picture  of  the  life  of  Jesus. 

Here,  perhaps,  is  the  secret  of  those  contrasts  of 
traits  which  have  so  often  perplexed  and  divided 
the  students  of  his  character.  He  is,  at  one  moment, 
on  the  height  of  conscious  power  and  authority ; 
and  at  another  among  the  meek  and  lowly  of  heart; 
now  claiming  the  high  mission  of  the  Messiah, 
now  making  himself  the  servant  of  all.  Which, 
it  is  asked,  is  his  real  character  ?  Is  he  Revealer 
or  Consoler,  Divinely  commissioned  or  humanly 
compassionate,  ascending  in  spirit  until  lost  as 
example  or  descending  in  service  until  lost  as 
Messiah  ?  He  is  both  of  these ;  not  because  two 
competing  characters  are  in  him  miraculously 
joined,  but  because  the  movement  of  his  harmo- 
nious character  feels  the  rhythm  of  the  spirit.    The 

1  Matt.  xvii.  1-21;  Mark  ix.  1-30.  2  Eph.  iv.  10. 


272      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

tidal  life  of  his  nature,  its  ascent  of  duty  and  its 
descent  of  faith,  are  not  opposing,  divisive,  alter- 
native forces,  but  part  of  the  total  swing  of  char- 
acter, which  unites  action  and  pause,  inspiration 
and  dedication,  the  consciousness  of  God  and  the 
service  of  man.  "  Now  that  he  ascended,  what  is 
it  but  that  he  also  descended  .  .  .  into  the  lower 
parts  of  the  earth."  * 

At  the  conclusion  of  one  of  Bishop  Berkeley's 
Dialogues,  the  two  friends  stand  by  a  fountain,  and 
Philonous  says  :  "  You  see,  Hylas,  the  water  of 
yonder  fountain,  how  it  is  forced  upwards,  ...  to 
a  certain  height ;  at  which  it  breaks  and  falls  back 
into  the  basin  from  whence  it  rose :  its  ascent  as 
well  as  descent,  proceeding  from  the  same  uniform 
law.  .  .  .  Just  so,  the  same  principles  which  at 
first  view  lead  to  scepticism,  pursued  to  a  certain 
point,  bring  men  back  to  Common  Sense."  2  The 
same  picture  may  represent  the  movement  of  the 
Christian  character.  It  has  its  impulse  to  rise  and 
its  attraction  to  descend ;  its  ascent  in  beauty  and 
its  descent  in  service ;  and  both  ascent  and  descent 
proceed  from  the  same  general  law.  The  teaching 
of  Jesus,  in  other  words,  whether  it  be  of  ethics  or 
of  faith,  is  a  teaching  of  the  unity  and  continuity  of 
experience.  It  recognizes  no  divided  life,  either  of 
morality  which  does  not  ascend  to  God  or  of  religion 
which  does  not  descend  to  man.  Duty-doing,  fol- 
lowing its  own  law,  leads  to  the  Eternal ;  but  the 
sense  of  the  Eternal  with  equal  compulsion  leads 

1  Eph.  iv.  9.  2  Works,  1837,  T»  82- 


THE    DESCENT    OF    FAITH  273 

back  to  duty.  It  is  the  river  by  its  own  nature 
seeking  the  sea,  only  to  find  the  tide  of  the  sea 
sweeping  back  into  the  river.  Ethics  remains 
tentative  and  preliminary  until  it  fulfils  itself  in 
faith ;  religion  remains  empty  and  abstract  until 
it  dedicates  itself  to  service.  The  test  of  religion 
is  neither  the  height  it  gains  nor  the  view  it  sur- 
veys, but  the  strength  with  which  it  descends. 
The  Christian  religion,  like  the  Christian  charac- 
ter, is  not  a  detached,  isolated,  self-sufficient  pos- 
session, but  a  form  of  power,  an  application  of 
strength  to  weakness,  of  sight  to  blindness,  of  the 
soul  that  has  found  the  heights  to  the  soul  of  the 
world  below.  There  is  no  Christian  religion  which 
is  not  an  applied  religion.  The  sanctified  life  is  the 
serviceable  life,  and  in  that  service  finds  its  free- 
dom. "  For  their  sakes,"  says  the  fourth  Gospel, 
"I  sanctify  myself."1  The  stream  of  the  reli- 
gious life  rises  in  the  quiet  places  of  personal  com- 
munion with  God,  but  the  law  of  attraction  leads  it 
down  to  the  great  places  of  the  busy  multitude  and 
their  unsanctified  toil ;  and  as  it  flows  it  sings  to 
itself  the  Master's  message :  "  I  am  come  that  these 
may  have  my  life,  and  may  have  it  abundantly." 

"  Not  always  on  the  mount  may  we 
Rapt  in  the  heavenly  vision  be ; 
****** 

The  mount  for  vision,  —  but  below 
The  paths  of  daily  duty  go."  2 

1  John  xvii.  19. 

2  F.  L.  Hosmer,  "The  Thought  of  God,"  1890,  p.  45  :  "On  the 

Mount." 


274      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

Such  is  the  law  of  the  descent  of  faith,  the 
utilization  of  power,  the  application  of  religion, 
the  unity  of  the  spiritual  life.  The  same  spirit 
which  leads  Jesus  to  God  sends  him  back  to 
man.  "  And  Jesus  was  led  by  the  Spirit  into  the 
wilderness,  .  .  .  and  Jesus  returned  in  the  power 
of  the  Spirit  into  Galilee  .  .  .  and  taught  in  their 
synagogues."  *  What  is  the  record  of  Christian 
history  and  of  contemporary  religion  concerning 
this  application  of  faith  to  duty  ?  Has  there  been 
a  consistent  acceptance  of  this  test  of  pure  religion  ? 
Has  the  ascent  of  ethics  been  supplemented  by  the 
descent  of  faith  ?  Is  religion  doing  the  work  it 
was  meant  to  do,  as  though  working  with  what 
the  political  economists  call  the  maximum  of  pro- 
duction ? 

No  one  can  survey  the  history  of  modern  prog- 
ress—  its  philanthropy,  its  reforms,  its  industrial 
responsibility,  its  political  democracy  —  without 
recognizing  that  the  chief  accession  of  moral  force 
which  these  movements  have  received  has  come 
from  the  Christian  religion.  On  the  other  hand, 
however,  it  must  be  frankly  admitted  that  no  misin- 
terpretation of  the  purpose  of  Jesus  is  so  persistent 
as  the  belief  that  religion  is  an  end  in  itself,  a 
detached  region  of  experience,  to  be  explored  and 
administered  as  a  distinct  province  of  life.  When 
one  has  reached,  by  any  path  he  may  have  followed, 
the  knowledge  of  God,  the  life  with  Christ,  the  wit- 
ness of  the  spirit,  then,  according  to  much  religious 

1  Luke  iv.  I,  14,  15. 


THE    DESCENT    OF   FAITH  275 

teaching,  the  end  of  the  soul's  progress  is  attained, 
and  there  is  left  only  contemplation,  obedience,  de- 
light, and  peace.  It  is  as  though  one  threw  himself 
down  at  the  summit  he  had  gained  and  surrendered 
himself  to  the  tranquil  joy  of  the  unclouded  view. 
What  is  the  whole  duty  of  man  ?  It  is  to  glorify 
God  and  enjoy  Him  forever.  What  is  the  Chris- 
tian Church  ?  It  is  the  refuge  of  the  saints.  What 
is  the  Christian  life  ?  It  is  a  way  of  retreat  from 
the  vicissitudes  of  life,  — 

"  From  every  stormy  wind  that  blows, 
From  every  swelling  tide  of  woes, 
There  is  a  safe  and  sure  retreat, 
'Tis  found  beneath  the  Mercy-seat." 

What  is  the  evidence  of  Christian  discipleship  ? 
It  is  worship,  praise,  prayer,  belief,  conformity, 
confession,  a  creed,  a  state  of  the  heart,  a  submis- 
sion of  the  will,  a  consent  of  the  mind  to  Christian 
truth. 

Are  not,  then,  these  expressions  and  pledges 
of  faith  of  the  essence  of  religion?  Undoubt- 
edly they  are  the  sublime  heights  toward  which 
the  ascent  of  ethics  leads.  The  satisfactions 
of  religion  are  reached  on  the  heights  of  faith 
as  a  varied  landscape  unrolls  itself  when  one 
reaches  the  summit.  Yet  neither  one  nor  all  of 
these  religious  satisfactions  represent,  according 
to  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  the  end  of  the  journey 
of  the  spirit,  the  abiding-place  of  Christian  faith. 
The  whole  duty  of  man  is  not  to  enjoy  God  for- 
ever, but  to  descend  with  the  grace  of  God  to  the 


2/6      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

help  of  man.  The  Christian  Church  is  not  a  place 
of  refuge  from  the  world,  but  a  place  of  training 
for  the  world.  The  Christian  life  is  not  a  retreat 
from  stormy  winds  and  tides  of  woe,  but  an  advance 
through  them  ;  not  a  hiding  beneath  the  Mercy-seat, 
but  a  rising  from  one's  seat  for  the  sake  of  mercy. 
The  evidence  of  Christian  discipleship  is  not  ec- 
clesiastical or  doctrinal,  but  ethical,  social,  political, 
industrial,  human.  In  short,  the  Christian  religion 
does  not  occupy  a  separated,  even  though  it  be 
an  elevated,  plateau  of  life,  but  descends  like  a 
fertilizing  stream  to  the  world  below.  "  When  he 
ascended  up  on  high,"  quotes  again  the  Epistle 
to  the  Ephesians  from  the  68th  Psalm,  "  he  led 
captivity  captive,  and  gave  gifts  unto  men."  *  The 
strength  to  release  the  captives,  and  the  grace  to 
give  unto  men  the  gifts  they  need,  are  for  those 
who,  having  ascended  up  on  high,  are  ready  to 
descend  into  the  lower  parts  of  the  earth. 

Are  not  many  tendencies  and  movements  of 
the  Christian  Church  brought  to  judgment  by  this 
teaching  of  Jesus?  They  have  concerned  them- 
selves with  the  defence  of  faith  rather  than  with 
the  descent  of  faith ;  they  have  guarded  religion  on 
its  heights,  while  the  world,  which  religion  should 
redeem,  has  trudged  by,  without  looking  up,  along 
its  dusty  way.  They  represent  in  religion  what  is 
known  in  social  affairs  as  provincialism.  A  per- 
son of  wide  experience  finds  himself  some  day  in  a 
secluded  village,  and  listens  to  the  talk  of  its  people, 

1  Eph.  iv.  8;  Ps.  lxviii.  18. 


THE   DESCENT   OF   FAITH  2^] 

as  they  discuss  the  weather  and  the  crops,  the 
price  of  hay  and  the  gossip  of  the  churches.  What 
impresses  this  observer  is  the  provincialism  of  this 
rustic  life.  These  subjects  of  commanding  interest 
are  not  fictitious  or  discreditable,  but  they  are  local, 
specialized,  provincial.  The  great  concerns  of  civ- 
ilization—  the  wars  of  nations  and  of  industries,  the 
achievements  of  science  and  art  —  excite  less  real 
emotion  in  these  villagers  than  the  condition  of  the 
roads  and  the  talk  of  the  town-meeting ;  and  it  is 
not  surprising  that  the  alert  and  venturesome  of 
the  village  youth  escape  from  this  provincial  life 
and  betake  themselves  to  a  world  which  is  more 
diversified,  comprehensive,  and  real. 

Suppose,  however,  that  it  is  not  some  modest 
village  which  is  thus  visited,  but  some  dignified 
convocation  of  Christian  believers;  may  one  not 
still  hear  in  its  hot  debates  the  same  note  of 
provincialism  ?  It  is  a  province  of  high  altitude, 
indeed,  which  he  has  entered;  yet  these  solemn 
deliberations  seem  not  less  detached  from  the 
interests  of  the  real  world.  What  is  this  organi- 
zation, one  asks  himself,  which  is  here  adminis- 
tered ?  Is  it  a  piece  of  machinery  which  is  being 
wound  up  and  repaired  ?  Is  it  a  court,  assigning 
its  penalties  ?  Is  it  an  army,  with  its  officers  and 
drills  ?  These  discussions  which  appear  so  absorb- 
ing to  the  participants  seem  to  the  looker-on,  not 
indeed  illegitimate,  but  simply  uninteresting.  They 
magnify  the  local  until  it  shuts  out  the  universal ; 
they  exaggerate  the  unimportant ;  they  use  a  dead 


278      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

language  ;  their  deliberations  run  on  a  side-track  of 
thought  which  does  not  connect  with  the  main  line 
of  the  modern  world ;  they  are  provincial.  In  the 
preface  to  the  sixth  edition  of  Professor  Paulsen's 
"  Ethics  "  he  cites  Professor  Sidgwick  as  applying 
to  many  controversies  in  philosophy  a  student's 
reply  to  an  examiner's  question  concerning  the  oc- 
cupations of  the  people  of  the  Hebrides.  "  The 
people  of  the  Hebrides,"  answered  this  youth, 
"  obtain  a  meagre  subsistence  by  washing  one  an- 
other's clothes."  x  A  similar  comment  might  occur 
to  this  observer  as  he  watches  the  proceedings  of 
some  ecclesiastical  convocations.  The  Christians, 
he  might  say,  obtain  a  meagre  subsistence  by  wash- 
ing or  soiling  or  criticising  each  other's  clothes. 

This  separatism  of  religion,  this  provincialism  of 
the  saints,  is  not  peculiar  to  contemporary  Chris- 
tianity or  indeed  characteristic  of  it.  The  same 
heresy  has  appeared  in  much  more  formidable 
shapes  in  earlier  periods  of  Christian  history. 
Gnosticism,  with  its  interpretation  of  religion  as  an 
esoteric  mystery;  Mysticism,  with  its  detachment 
of  the  believer  from  the  ordinary  channels  of  re- 
ligious expression ;  even  the  familiar  Prudentialism 
of  self-interested  religion,  with  its  overwhelming 
concern  for  personal  salvation ;  —  all  have  in  them 
a  quality  of  provincialism,  as  though  the  security 
of  the  single  soul  were  separable  from  the  fate  of 

*"  System  der  Ethik,"  1903,  I,  x:  "Sidgwick  macht  Anwen- 
dung  von  der  Geschichte  auf  die  Metaphysiker.  Sie  scheint  mir 
auch  auf  manche  Moralphilosophen  zu  passen." 


THE   DESCENT   OF   FAITH  2  79 

the  world,  like  a  single  life  which  saves  itself  from 
a  sinking  ship.  These  forms  which  religion  assumes 
are  not  so  much  misrepresentations  of  religion  as 
fragments  of  religion.  They  miss  the  uniting  bond 
and  harmonizing  principle  of  the  descent  of  faith. 
They  delay  on  the  heights  when  they  should  be 
at  work  in  the  valleys.  There  is  but  one  subject 
which  is  appropriate  as  the  centre  of  debate  in  a 
Christian  assembly.  It  is  the  question  how  to  util- 
ize the  power  of  faith  for  the  good  of  men.  There 
is  one  Bible  passage  without  which  no  convocation 
of  Christians  should  end  its  deliberations.  It  is  the 
last  verses  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount :  "  Not 
every  one  that  saith  unto  me,  Lord,  Lord,  but  he 
that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father.  .  .  .  He  that 
heareth  my  sayings  and  doeth  them,  builds  upon 
a  rock."  The  heresy  in  Gnosticism  is  not  its  con- 
clusion that  knowledge  illuminates  religion,  but  its 
assumption  that  illuminated  knowledge  may  be  a 
substitute  for  religion.  The  defect  of  Mysticism  is 
not  its  emotional  exaltation,  but  its  emotional  isola- 
tion. The  inadequacy  of  Prudentialism  is  not  its 
belief  that  to  save  one's  own  soul  is  of  supreme 
concern,  but  its  belief  that  one's  soul  can  be  saved 
alone.  The  life  that  escapes  from  the  wreck  may 
seem  to  be  saved,  but  in  deserting  the  wreck  the 
soul  may  be  lost.  The  problem  of  salvation  is  that 
of  saving  the  ship ;  and  a  perfect  statement  of  sal- 
vation was  made  of  a  life  that  seemed  to  be  lost: 
"  He  saved  others ;  himself  he  cannot  save."  x 

1  Matt,  xxvii.  42  ;  Mark  xv.  31. 


280      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

How  is  it,  then,  that  the  descent  of  faith  may 
be  accomplished  under  the  special  conditions  of 
the  modern  world  ?  Here,  on  the  one  hand,  is  a 
source  of  power ;  and  here,  on  the  other  hand,  is 
the  world,  waiting  for  a  supply  of  power.  What 
are  the  channels  which  are  prepared  by  the  cir- 
cumstances of  modern  life  for  this  movement  of 
spiritual  irrigation?  What  are  the  signs  of  the 
times  which  invite  the  descent  of  faith? 

It  is  interesting  to  recall  that  this,  which  is  the 
most  pressing  question  of  religion,  has  already  met 
us  in  another  form,  as  the  question  with  which  the 
civilized  world  is  confronted  as  a  new  century 
begins.1  The  nineteenth  century  was  a  period  of 
extraordinary  development  in  the  external,  physical, 
mechanical  arrangement  of  the  world's  work.  It 
was  the  age  of  science,  of  invention,  of  machin- 
ery, of  political  consolidation,  of  industrial  organi- 
zation, —  the  period  which  made  of  human  society 
in  an  unprecedented  degree  a  fighting,  producing, 
governing,  administering  machine.  Religion  also 
had  its  share  in  this  movement  toward  mechanical 
perfection.  It  was  the  period  of  institutional 
churches,  parish  houses,  denominational  organi- 
zations, of  conventions,  conferences,  delegations, 
committees.  Never  before  did  the  machinery  of 
the  Christian  Church  work  so  well.  It  is  the  natu- 
ral order  of  progress,  —  first  that  which  is  natural, 
afterward  that  which  is  spiritual.  The  develop- 
ment of  natural  science,  the  acceptance  of  natural 
1  Compare  Ch.  I,  pp.  13  ff. 


THE   DESCENT    OF    FAITH  28 1 

law,  the  interpretation  of  human  society  in  terms 
of  biology,  the  conception  of  the  social  organism 
with  its  many  members  —  all  these  characteristics 
of  the  nineteenth  century  had  their  inevitable  in- 
fluence on  religious  methods,  as  though  they  also 
were  physical,  biological,  material,  with  a  mechani- 
cal and  external  work  to  do. 

Such  a  period,  however,  though  it  be  essential  in 
the  history  of  religion,  bears  on  its  very  face  the 
mark  of  preparatoriness,  as  though  confessedly  pre- 
liminary to  a  new  movement  of  a  new  time.  The 
mechanism  of  nature,  which  has  been  so  impres- 
sively demonstrated  during  the  nineteenth  century, 
is  already  seen  to  disclose  within  itself  a  spiritual 
movement,  of  which  natural  law  is  the  instrument 
and  expression ;  and  the  key  of  the  modern  philoso- 
phy of  nature  is  found  in  the  dictum  of  Lotze,  — 
that  mechanism  is  everywhere  essential,  yet  every- 
where subordinate.1  The  vast  organizations  of 
politics  and  industry  which  have  been  devised  by 
one  generation  now  present  to  the  next  generation 
a  new  problem  of  converting  this  gigantic  machin- 
ery into  forms  of  moral  power.  The  conception 
of  society  as  a  biological  organism,  which  was  con- 
fidently announced  a  generation  ago,  has  proved  in- 
sufficient, and  social  evolution  turns  to  psychology 
for  its  interpretation.     These  aspects  of  the  world 

1  " Mikrokosmus,"  2te  Aufl.,  1869,  s.  xv:  "The  life  of  science 
consists  ...  in  proving  how  absolutely  universal  is  the  extent,  and 
at  the  same  time  how  absolutely  subordinate  is  the  part,  which 
mechanism  has  to  fulfil  in  the  structure  of  the  world." 


282      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

and  its  affairs  —  a  spiritual  significance  within  the 
machinery  of  nature,  a  demand  for  the  spiritualiza- 
tion  of  material  life,  a  renaissance  of  ethical  ideal- 
ism—  find  unprecedented  recognition  as  a  new 
century  begins.  The  nineteenth  century  had  for 
its  subject  of  inquiry  the  social  body ;  the  twentieth 
century  has  for  its  subject  the  social  soul. 

The  same  enlargement  of  its  task  is  now  offered 
to  religion.  If  the  churches  remain  primarily 
concerned  with  questions  of  their  mechanism;  if 
they  continue  to  live  in  the  era  of  organization 
while  philosophy  and  sociology  have  advanced  to 
the  era  of  spiritualization ;  if  religion  is  fenced  in 
by  separatism  and  provincialism,  while  the  rest 
of  the  world  is  taking  down  its  fences  and  dis- 
covering the  unity  of  human  life  —  then,  even 
though  religion  concerns  itself  with  the  loftiest  of 
themes  and  contemplates  the  broadest  horizon  of 
human  thought,  it  must  forfeit  the  right  to  primacy 
among  the  creative  influences  of  the  new  world, 
and  must  become  simply  the  refuge  of  the  gnostic, 
the  mystic,  and  the  prudential. 

In  one  of  the  most  brilliant,  though  not  perhaps 
most  cautious,  of  modern  treatises  on  early  Christian 
history,  Professor  Wernle  remarks  that  Jesus  came 
"  to  save  his  followers  from  the  theologians." *  The 
statement  has  a  certain  historical  justification  in 
the  attitude  of  Jesus  toward  the  theologians  of  his 
own  day;  but  it  most  imperfectly  represents  his 

1  "  Anfange  unserer  Religion,"  1901,  s.  60  :  "Die  Gabe  dieser 
Gelehrten  war  Scharfsinn  und  gutes  Gedachtniss,  weiter  nichts." 


THE    DESCENT   OF    FAITH  283 

attitude  toward  theology.  His  purpose  was  not  to 
save  men  from  the  theologians,  but  to  save  the 
theologians  themselves.  Theology  must  always  re- 
main the  supreme  interest  of  thoughtful  minds, 
the  height  of  loftiest  contemplation  and  broadest 
horizon ;  but  the  theology  of  the  separatist,  the 
gnostic,  the  mystic,  the  priest,  the  Pharisee,  has 
no  more  part  in  the  Christian  religion  to-day  than 
it  had  in  the  days  of  Jesus.  The  defence  of  faith 
must  be  made  by  the  descent  of  faith.  The  the- 
ology appropriate  to  a  religion  of  power  is  a 
theology  which  supplies  power.  The  communion 
of  the  soul  with  God  remains,  as  it  has  always 
been,  the  mount  of  vision  to  which  theology  may 
ascend ;  but  the  proof  of  religion  which  theology 
must  give  is  to  be  found  nowhere  else  than  in  the 
descent  of  theology  to  life,  and  the  application  to 
service  of  the  heavenly  vision.  The  modern  world 
needs,  indeed,  new  adjustments  of  its  machinery 
to  steady  employment,  to  diminish  the  tragic  waste 
of  human  life  and  the  still  more  tragic  idleness  of 
the  unapplied  and  inapplicable ;  but  what  the 
modern  world  much  more  needs  is  the  power  to 
set  this  halting  machinery  in  steady  and  effective 
motion ;  and  this  spiritual  power  is  from  above, 
descending  as  by  the  law  of  gravitation  from  the 
sources  of  faith  to  move  the  wheels  of  work. 

How  is  it,  then,  that  the  descent  of  faith  may 
proceed  ?  The  first  and  most  obvious  application 
of  religion  to  life  was  immediately  made  by  the 
primitive   Church   in  its  extraordinary  movement 


284      JESUS   CHRIST  AND   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

of  compassion.  The  descent  of  Christian  faith 
expressed  itself  from  the  beginning  in  Christian 
charity ;  the  descent  of  pity  was  the  corollary  of 
the  ascent  of  prayer.  Even  in  this  great  move- 
ment of  Christian  charity,  however,  it  has  been  by 
no  means  always  recognized  that  the  application 
of  faith  to  service  is  an  integral  part  of  the  religious 
process  itself,  as  essential  to  Christian  discipleship 
as  worship  or  belief.  Philanthropy  has  often  ap- 
peared an  accessory  enterprise,  which  may  be 
becoming  for  Christians  to  undertake,  but  which 
lies  beyond  the  distinctive  sphere  and  essential 
task  of  the  Church.  At  a  meeting  in  a  Women's 
Settlement  House  —  the  most  unimpeachable  form 
of  self-effacing  service  which  modern  philanthropy 
has  devised  —  a  minister  of  the  Christian  religion, 
looking  about  him  for  some  technical  expression 
of  ecclesiastical  loyalty,  remarked :  "  This  is  very 
touching,  but  I  wish  there  were  more  of  Christ 
in  it."  How  could  there  be  more  of  Christ,  one 
asked  himself,  than  in  such  a  work,  just  as  it  was, 
without  technical  confession  or  provincial  limita- 
tion ?  Might  not  the  Master,  were  he  to  walk  those 
streets,  pass  with  indifference  many  a  temple  built 
in  his  name,  and  laying  his  hands  of  blessing  on 
these  ministering  women  say :  "  Inasmuch  as  ye 
have  done  it  unto  these  least,  ye  have  done  it  unto 
me"? 

Modern  charity,  in  other  words,  is  not  an  enter- 
prise into  which  persons,  being  already  religious, 
may  venture,  as  into  a  foreign  land  of  new  cus- 


THE   DESCENT   OF   FAITH  285 

toms  and  new  languages,  but  lies  within  the 
natural  boundaries  of  religion,  a  home-country 
whose  language  is  the  language  of  faith,  and  which 
needs  no  apology  or  symbol  or  flag  to  bring  it 
within  the  Kingdom  of  God.  "  The  poor,"  it  was 
held  in  the  early  Church,  as  though  charity  were 
itself  an  act  of  worship,  "shall  be  esteemed  an 
altar  unto  God." *  The  workers  in  modern  charity 
need,  it  is  true,  more  knowledge  of  their  science, 
better  training,  new  schools  of  philanthropy ;  but 
if  they  should  utter  their  deepest  need,  it  would  be 
a  prayer  for  faith,  the  assurance  that  they  were 
working  with  God,  the  grace  to  see  their  work  from 
above  and  to  descend  to  it  with  power.  Religion 
is  provincial  if  it  does  not  annex  this  territory  of 
pity.  Undefiled  religion  is  to  be  recognized  not 
less  by  the  wisdom  with  which  one  visits  the 
widows  and  fatherless  than  by  the  grace  to  keep 
oneself  unspotted  from  the  world. 

The  same  qualified  appreciation  must  be  ex- 
pressed in  a  second  instance  where  Christian  faith 
has  been  applied  to  modern  life.  Nothing  has  of 
late  so  gravely  impressed  the  Christian  world  as 
the  significance  to  civilization  of  the  institution  of 
the  family.  The  social  peril  of  domestic  instability 
which  confronts  modern  life  is  a  challenge  to  reli- 
gion, and  faith  has  descended  into  this  scene  of 
disruption  and  infelicity  with  its  counsels  and  ex- 
hortations. Better  laws,  better  comity  between 
churches,  more  scrupulous  obedience  to  ecclesias- 

1  "Apostolic  Constitutions,"  Bk.  IV,  in. 


286      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER 

tical  canons,  are  urged  in  the  name  of  Christ 
Through  all  this  consciousness  of  social  peril, 
however,  there  still  persists  in  many  minds  the 
provincial  impression  that  in  this  extension  of 
responsibility  religion  is  proceeding  beyond  its  own 
special  sphere,  as  into  foreign  territory,  adjacent, 
but  not  its  own.  Is  not  the  home,  it  is  asked,  a 
product  of  law  and  custom,  which  must  be  safe- 
guarded by  the  legislatures  and  courts,  rather  than 
a  part  of  the  field  of  religion,  for  which  religious 
organizations  have  the  chief  responsibility  ? 

The  answer  to  this  question  must  depend  on 
one's  conception  of  religion  and  its  boundaries. 
Is  the  relation  of  religion  to  the  home  that  of 
one  institution  patronizing  another  institution,  or  is 
the  home  itself  a  religious  institution,  historically 
created  by  moral  sacrifices  and  restraints,  and  per- 
petuated by  the  ideals  of  faith  and  love  ?  Behind 
all  legislative  questions  which  concern  the  family 
lies  the  religious  question  of  recognizing  in  the 
family  the  social  type  selected  by  Jesus  Christ  to 
represent  his  religion.  The  stability  of  modern 
marriage  is  not  to  be  attained  by  mechanical 
devices  of  law,  but  by  a  spiritual  revival,  which  it  is 
for  religion  to  secure ;  a  return  from  ostentation 
to  simplicity,  and  from  laxity  to  loyalty,  which  is 
for  religion  to  preach ;  a  restoration  of  faith  in  the 
home,  not  as  a  commercial  venture,  but  as  a  spirit- 
ual opportunity  and  discipline.  The  problem  of 
religion  in  the  twentieth  century  begins  in  the 
descent  of  faith  into  the  family,  the  recognition  of 


THE    DESCENT    OF    FAITH  287 

the  family  as  the  type  of  God's  Kingdom,  the  an- 
nexation of  the  province  of  the  family  as  belonging 
to  the  Kingdom  of  God ;  and  the  order  of  procedure 
in  this  expansion  of  religion  is  to  be,  —  not,  first, 
the  enactment  of  ritual  and  canons  to  be  applied 
to  the  family,  but  first,  the  plain  understanding  that 
domestic  integrity  is  an  essential  part  of  Christian 
discipleship. 

It  may  be  gladly  admitted,  however,  that  in 
these  concerns  of  charity  and  of  family  integrity 
the  descent  of  faith  has  been  in  large  degree  rec- 
ognized as  an  essential  part  of  a  Christian  civiliza- 
tion. It  is  otherwise  with  other  great  areas  of  the 
modern  world,  where  the  most  commanding  inter- 
ests of  the  present  age  are  to  be  found.  Within  a 
single  generation  new  forms  of  industry  and  new 
movements  of  politics  have  created  a  practically 
new  world,  and  the  Christian  Church  still  stands 
on  the  quiet  shore  of  its  secluded  and  specialized 
life  and  watches  the  life  of  the  present  age  as  it 
drifts  among  these  tumultuous  waves  and  conflict- 
ing currents,  like  a  vessel  driven  toward  the  rocks. 
Something,  the  Church  knows,  ought  to  be  done 
by  religion,  to  save,  not  single  lives  alone,  but  the 
ship  itself;  yet  how  shall  faith  venture  into  so 
dangerous  a  sea  ?  What  means  of  help,  what 
skill  in  salvage  has  it,  what  training  to  take  com- 
mand of  so  perilous  a  venture  ? 

Precisely  at  this  point,  however,  where  the  new 
risk  is  seen,  is  the  new  opportunity  offered  to  re- 
ligion to  justify  its  claim  to  leadership,  wisdom,  and 


288      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

power.  Who  shall  rescue  industry  from  merciless- 
ness  and  rapacity,  or  politics  from  unscrupulousness 
and  sectionalism,  if  it  be  not  those  who  have  learned 
that  a  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of 
the  things  that  he  possesseth,  and  that  righteousness 
alone  exalteth  a  people  ?  A  church  is  like  a  life- 
saving  station,  set  in  a  protected  bay ;  but  what 
shall  we  say  of  life-savers  who  make  no  venture 
toward  a  drifting  vessel,  but  stand  on  the  beach 
and  wave  ?  What  wonder  is  it  that  the  industrial 
movement  of  the  present  age  believes  itself  beyond 
the  province  of  the  Church,  when  the  Church  still 
believes  itself  to  be  provincial?  When  Jesus 
stood  one  day  with  his  little  company  by  the  Lake 
of  Galilee,  it  was  the  meagre  use  of  their  great 
opportunity  which  seems  to  have  impressed  his 
mind,  and  he  used  the  language  of  their  vocation 
as  a  parable  of  the  work  they  had  to  do.  "  Launch 
out,"  he  bade  them,  "  into  the  deep,  and  let  down 
your  nets  for  a  draught."  *  They  had  been  fishing 
along  the  shores  of  their  opportunity,  and  he  called 
them  to  do  business  in  great  waters.  They  had 
been  as  those  who  caught  minnows,  when  he  meant 
that  they  should  catch  men.  It  is  the  call  of  the 
present  age  to  a  timid  Church :  "  Launch  out 
into  the  deep."  The  place  of  religion  in  the 
modern  world  is  not  along  its  shores,  but  among 
its  waves  and  storms.  The  industrial  agitations  of 
the  time  are  a  challenge  to  the  courage  of  the 
Church. 

1  Luke  v.  4. 


THE   DESCENT    OF   FAITH  289 

What  is  the  fundamental  provocation  of  our  in- 
dustrial discontent  ?  It  is  the  obvious  fact  that 
neither  party  to  the  industrial  conflict  manifests 
the  slightest  intention  of  applying  the  principles  of 
religion  to  the  affairs  of  business.  The  two  prov- 
inces of  life  are  regarded  as  having  distinct  boun- 
daries, as  though  in  one  continent  of  the  spirit  there 
might  be  a  state  of  war,  while  in  another  peace 
and  prosperity  might  endure.  There  is,  however, 
no  such  division  of  Orient  and  Occident  on  the 
map  of  religion.  Either  the  whole  of  life  is  ruled 
by  religion,  or  religion  becomes  formal,  technical, 
fictitious,  and  substitutes  for  religion  must  be  found 
which  shall  control  the  whole  of  life.  One  of  the 
most  instructive  aspects  of  modern  industry  is 
the  passionate  devotion  which  thousands  of  plain 
people  offer  to  the  cause  of  industrial  revolution. 
What  is  there  in  the  creed  of  socialism  which  gives 
it  this  emotional  quality  ?  On  its  face  it  appears 
to  be  a  mere  change  of  ownership,  a  new  distribu- 
tion of  production,  an  economic  proposition.  Why 
is  it  that  men  sacrifice  themselves  so  eagerly  and 
passionately  for  such  a  cause  ?  It  is  because  it  is 
the  nearest  substitute  they  have  discovered  for  a 
religion.  A  religion  of  materialism  it  may  be  that 
they  have  reached,  a  pathetic  substitute  for  Chris- 
tian faith;  yet  so  long  as  the  Christian  Church 
regards  the  world  of  industry  as  foreign  territory, 
so  long  those  who  are  inextricably  involved  in  the 
industrial  order  will  create  a  new  religion  for  them- 
selves.    The  growth  of  socialism  is  an  indictment 


290      JESUS    CHRIST    AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

of  the  Christian  religion.  It  is  the  working-man's 
answer  to  religious  provincialism.  The  descent  of 
religion  into  the  problems  of  industrial  life  is  the 
crucial  problem  of  the  Church  in  the  twentieth 
century. 

Finally,  the  same  problem  presents  itself  in 
the  political  conditions  of  the  present  time.  In 
the  most  unanticipated  and  dramatic  manner  the 
movement  toward  organization,  concentration,  and 
efficiency  which  has  dominated  industry  has  re- 
appeared in  national  affairs.  The  nations  are  con- 
fronted by  questions  of  world-politics.  National 
expansion  has  become,  not  so  much  a  policy  to 
debate,  as  a  condition  from  which  it  is  impossible 
to  retreat.  But  what  does  political  expansion  indi- 
cate as  the  new  task  of  religion?  It  is  often 
affirmed  that  it  opens  the  way  for  religion  to 
follow,  as  though,  when  other  agencies  had  done 
their  work,  religion  might  reap  the  harvest.  What 
is  this  view  of  religion  as  a  technical,  specialized 
undertaking,  which  may  follow  on  the  track  of 
politics,  but  sheer  provincialism?  Religion  can- 
not be  exported  to  a  foreign  nation,  like  one 
more  home-manufacture,  after  the  politicians  and 
the  traders  have  opened  the  way.  It  is  in  and 
through  the  spirit  of  conquest,  in  and  through 
the  conduct  of  commercial  life,  that  religion  must 
be  conveyed.  Its  missions  will  be  regarded  as 
mere  hypocrisy  and  formalism  unless  its  rulers,  its 
soldiers,  and  its  traders  are  themselves  missionaries. 
It  is  not  after  the  statesmen  have  finished  that  the 


THE    DESCENT    OF   FAITH  29 1 

Church  begins,  but  it  is  in  that  which  the  states- 
men do  that  the  religion  they  represent  is  weighed. 
Politics  is  not  extraneous  to  religion,  a  foreign 
invasion  to  be  followed  by  international  peace ;  it 
is  itself  a  part  of  religion.  The  detachment  of 
political  expediency  from  religious  ideals  is  the 
gravest  indictment  which  can  be  made,  not  only 
against  the  politics,  but  also  against  the  religion  of 
a  land. 

In  beginning  the  biography  of  Gladstone,  Mr. 
Morley  calls  attention  to  the  essentially  religious 
character  of  that  great  political  career.  "  Not 
for  two  centuries,"  says  his  biographer,  "  had  our 
island  produced  a  ruler  in  whom  the  religious 
motive  was  paramount  in  the  like  degree.  He 
was  not  only  a  political  force,  but  a  moral  force. 
.  .  .  Well  was  it  said  of  him,  '  You  have  so  lived 
and  wrought  that  you  have  kept  the  soul  alive  in 
England ' " ;  and  in  another  place  Mr.  Gladstone 
himself  makes  his  own  confession  of  faith  :  "  I 
am  desirous  that  the  standard  of .  our  material 
strength  shall  be  highly  estimated  .  .  .,  but  I  be- 
lieve it  of  still  more  vital  consequence  that  we 
should  stand  high  ...  as  the  lovers  of  truth,  of 
honor,  and  of  openness  in  our  proceedings.  .  .  . 
I  value  our  insular  position,  but  I  dread  the  day 
when  we  shall  be  reduced  to  a  moral  insularity."  J 
That  is  the  descent  of  faith  into  the  political  world. 
The  Christian  statesman  keeps  the  soul  of  his  nation 

1  "The  Life  of  William  Ewart  Gladstone,"  1903,  I,  3,  5,  and 
II,  578. 


292      JESUS    CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

alive  and  defends  her  from  moral  insularity.  The 
Christian  State,  like  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  is  not 
built  up  from  beneath,  on  material  foundations, 
but  descends,  in  the  ideals  of  her  statesmen,  out 
of  heaven  from  God. 

Such,  in  imperfect  illustrations,  is  the  scope  of 
the  ethics  of  Jesus.  In  a  heated  political  cam- 
paign, a  distinguished  American  politician  is  said 
to  have  given  as  instructions  to  his  adherents : 
"  Claim  everything."  Such,  with  a  different  in- 
tention, is  the  message  of  Jesus  to  the  Christian 
character.  Nothing  lies  beyond  its  province.  The 
chief  peril  of  Christian  conduct  is  in  dealing  with 
a  great  matter  as  though  it  were  a  small  one ;  in 
mistaking  a  universal  claim  for  a  limited,  fenced- 
in  area,  staked  out  like  a  miner's  claim  within 
which  treasure  must  be  found.  "All  things  are 
yours," 1  says  the  Apostle  Paul,  reiterating  the 
comprehensiveness  of  Jesus,  —  whether  it  be  the 
divisions  within  the  Church,  of  Paul  or  Apollos  or 
Cephas ;  or  the  world  outside  the  Church,  with  its 
philanthropy,  its  industry,  its  politics ;  or  life,  with 
its  problems;  or  death,  with  its  mystery;  or  the 
present,  with  its  cares;  or  the  future,  with  its 
hopes ;  —  all  is  yours,  if  you  are  Christ's,  as  Christ 
is  God's. 

There  are  many  subjects  concerning  which  Jesus 
has  little  to  teach  the  modern  world.  The  circum- 
stances of  his  life  were  primitive  in  their  simplicity 

1  1  Cor.  iii.  21-23. 


THE   DESCENT   OF   FAITH  293 

when  compared  with  the  storm  and  stress  of  the 
present  time.  He  knew  nothing  of  the  industrial 
complexity  which  has  brought  with  it  such  indus- 
trial perplexity ;  he  heard  but  from  afar  the  rumors 
of  imperial  politics;  he  was  not  concerned  with 
the  mechanics  of  theology  or  ecclesiasticism.  One 
truth  concerning  human  life,  however,  he  taught, 
which  is  the  secret,  in  any  age  or  place,  of  peace  in 
industry,  of  wisdom  in  politics,  of  tolerance  in  re- 
ligion. It  was  the  truth  that  life  is  not  divisible, 
departmental,  provincial ;  but  organic,  interdepend- 
ent, one.  He  saw  life  in  motion,  as  a  process  of 
growth,  a  sowing  and  harvest ;  a  progress,  not  on  a 
level,  but  through  a  land  of  hills  and  valleys,  ascend- 
ing to  descend,  obeying  to  know,  and  knowing  to 
obey.  There  is,  according  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus, 
no  duty-doing  which  does  not  lead  one  up  its  steep 
path  toward  religious  faith ;  there  is  no  religious 
faith  which  does  not  lead  one  down  its  slope  to  duty. 
These  are  not  two  ways  of  life  but  one,  moving  with 
the  rhythm  of  the  spirit,  which  is  akin  to  the  rhythm 
of  nature,  with  its  nights  and  days,  its  seasons  and 
tides,  its  society  and  solitude,  its  activity  and  recep- 
tivity, its  life  and  death  and  renewing  life.  One 
beat  of  the  spiritual  rhythm  is  character ;  another 
is  religion.  Ethics  fulfils  itself  in  its  ascent;  re- 
ligion is  perfected  in  its  descent;  and  life  keeps 
time  to  this  rhythmic  movement,  from  tasks  to 
visions,  and  from  visions  back  to  tasks. 

In  the  Book  of  Genesis  it  is  written  that  a  ladder 
was  set  up  on  earth  and  reached  to  heaven,  and 


294      JESUS   CHRIST   AND    CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER 

that  the  angels  of  God  both  ascended  and  de- 
scended  on  it ;  and  in  the  fourth  Gospel  it  is  said 
of  Jesus  that  the  angels  of  God  both  ascended 
and  descended  upon  the  Son  of  Man.1  These  two 
processions  of  celestial  influences  still  attend  the 
ascending  life  of  duty  and  the  descending  life  of 
faith.  The  duty-doer  as  he  goes  up  into  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Most  High  joins  the  ascending  angels; 
but  even  in  that  presence  they  do  not  pause  with 
folded  wings.  Downward  they  go  once  more,  and 
he  is  their  companion  who  leaves  the  vision  to 
descend  into  the  lower  parts  of  the  earth.  Up  the 
ladder  of  life  mounts  duty,  until  the  pure  in  heart 
see  God,  and  down  its  stairs  descends  the  wisdom 
from  above  to  interpret  the  life  below ;  and  along 
both  ascent  and  descent  stand  the  angels  of  God 
to  guard  and  cheer  the  sons  of  men. 

1  Gen.  xxviii.  12  j  John  i.  51, 


INDEX 


Abbott,  E.  A.,  19  note. 

Adams,  M.,  162  note. 

Adler,  Felix,  238  note. 

Alford,  127  note. 

A  polios,  292. 

"  Apostolic  Constitutions,"  285  note. 

Aristotle,  81. 

Arndt,  11  note. 

Arnold,  Matthew,  168  note,  192. 

Art,  Christian,  43  note. 

Asceticism,  Christian,  167  ff. ;  Jesus 

opposed  to,  169. 
Articles    XXXIX,   No.  VIII,  217 

note. 

Baur,  26  note. 

Bax,  10  note. 

Bayliss,  Sir  W.,  43  note. 

Beatitudes,  246,  247. 

Bebel,  10  note. 

Bentham,  254. 

Berkeley,  272. 

Bernstein,  11  note. 

Beyschlag,  105  note. 

Bible,  social  quality  of,  4,  196  ff. 

Bixby,  J.  T.,  124  note. 

Black,    Hugh,  51  note,   146   note, 

158  note. 
Body,   ethics  of,   167;    source   of 

power,  171,  175. 
Bonhoff,  27  note. 
Bradley,  F.  H„  47  note,  155  note. 
Briggs,  C.  A.,  28  note. 
Broadus,  28  note. 

Brooks,  Phillips,  27  note,  184  note. 
Browning,  R.,  225  note,  255. 
Bruce,  A.  L.,  21  note,  28  note. 
Bruce,  W.  S.,  27  note. 
Bruno,  J.  F.  de,  262  note. 


Buckley,  G.  W.,  62  note. 
Bushnell,  H.,  99  note. 

Caird,  J.,  96  note. 

Cairns,  D.  S.,  267  note. 

Caligula,  173. 

Carlyle,  T.,  13,  14  note. 

Carpenter,  W.  Boyd,  43  note. 

Casuist  misinterpretation  of  New 
Testament,  72  ff. 

Celibacy,  173  ff. 

Cephas,  292. 

Chamberlain,  H.  S.,  50  note. 

Channing,  W.  E.,  37  note,  55 
note. 

Chapman,  E.  M.,  251  note. 

Charity,  Christian,  129,  130,  284  ff. ; 
in  primitive  church,  218  note. 

Chastity,  173. 

Childhood,  attitude  of  Jesus  toward, 
80  ff. 

Christian  character,  present  de- 
mand for,  13  ff.,  151  ff.;  not 
attainment  but  growth,  79,  86  ; 
receptiveness  of,  84  ff. ;  elements 
of,  112  ff. ;  paradox  of,  146  ;  fruits 
of,  139  ff. ;  fitness  for  modern  life, 
154  ff. ;  personal  consequences  of, 
154  ff.;  social  consequences  of, 
196  ff. ;  relation  to  knowledge, 
179;  to  emotional  life,  181  ff. ; 
poise,  188;  simplicity,  188  ff. ; 
peace,  190  ff. ;  grace,  193  ff. ;  ex- 
pressed in  sacrifice,  199  ff. ;  ser- 
vice, 210  ff. ;  idealism  of,  223  ff.; 
ascent  to  faith  and  return  to 
duty,  272  ff. ;  universality  of,  292. 

Christian  Ethics,  see  Ethics,  Chris- 
tian. 


295 


296 


INDEX 


Christian  thought,  characteristics 
of,  179. 

Christopher,  38. 

Church,  opportunity  of,  287  ff. 

Clement,  218  note. 

Cobbe,  F.  P.,  28  note. 

Consequences,  of  Christian  char- 
acter, 154  ff. 

Conversion,  Jesus'  doctrine  of, 
107  ff. 

Crothers,  S.  M.,  63  note. 

"  Daily  Telegraph,"  262  note. 

Dawson,  W.  J.,  48  note. 

Dobschiitz,  von,  37  note,  43  note. 

Dogmatic  misinterpretation  of  New 
Testament,  76  ff. 

Dorner,  24  note,  172  note. 

Dresser,  55  note. 

Drummond,  J.,  28  note. 

Duty,  conception  of  Jesus,  123  ff., 
257  ff. ;  hedonistic  theory  of, 
123-124 ;  false  isolation  of,  256. 

"  Ecce  Homo,"  27  note. 

Education,  moral,  90,  91. 

Ehrhardt,  26  note,  49  note. 

Emerson,  R.  W.,  119  note,  149, 169, 
222  note,  258  note. 

Emotion  and  reason,  96 ;  Christian 
doctrine  of,  180  ff. ;  true  place  of, 
186  ff. 

Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  19  note. 

Engels,  F.,  12  note. 

Eternal  life,  real  nature  of,  135  ff. 

Ethical  Culture  Association,  236  ff. 

Ethics,  neglect  of,  in  New  Testa- 
ment study,  22  ff. ;  leads  to  reli- 
gion, 234  ff. ;  field  of,  239 ; 
incomplete  in  itself,  244  ff. ;  of 
Jesus,  258  ff. 

Ethics,  Christian,  relation  to  the- 
ology, 23  ff. ;  supremacy,  29  ff. 

Ethics,  formal,  unreality  of,  252  ff. 

External  righteousness,  opposed  by 
Jesus,  115  ;  modern  form  of,  119. 

Externalism,  as  social  remedy,  9. 


Fairbairn,  21  note,  42  note,  61  note, 

143  note. 
Faith,  of  Jesus  in  humanity,  87  ff. ; 

maintenance  of,  262  ff. 
Family,  relation  of  Jesus  to  his,  68  ; 

relation  of  Christianity  to,  285  ff. 
Farrar,  43  note. 
Feddersen,  27  note. 
Feeling,  place  of,  in  religion,  96; 

also  see  Emotion. 
Fiske,  John,  235,  236  note. 
Fitzgerald,  257. 
Fowle,  220  note. 
Fremantle,  8  note. 
Fruits  of  Christian  character,  139  ff. 

Gallwitz,  27  note,  46  note. 

Gardner,  Percy,  99  note. 

Gass,  24  note. 

Gebhardt  and  Harnack,  43  note. 

Gilbert,  G.  H.,  28  note. 

Gladden,  W.,  99  note. 

Gladstone,  W.  E.,  291  note. 

Gladstone,  religious  nature  of,  291. 

Gnosticism,  176  ff.,  278,  279. 

Gohre,  P.,  34  note. 

Goethe,  225  note,  243  note. 

Golden  Rule,  205. 

Goldsmith,  O.,  165. 

Gospels,  fourth  less  ethical,  18  ff. ; 

ethical  teaching  of,  21  ff. ;  ethical 

approach  to,  31. 
Grace,    in     Christian     character, 

193  ff. 
Green,  T.  H.,  225  note. 
Gregory  of  Nazianzen,  37  note. 
Grimm,   E.,    17  note,  zj  note,  46 

note. 
Grote,  J.,  225  note. 
Growth,  of  Christian  character,  86, 

112  ff. ;  elements  of,  113  ff. 
Guyau,  M.,  264  note. 

Harnack,  A.,  28  note,  37  note, 
43  note,  49  note,  56  note,  121  note, 
159  note. 

Harris,  G.,  18  note,  27  note,  37  note. 


INDEX 


297 


Hase,  48  note. 

Hebrew,  conception  of  righteous- 
ness, 113  ff. ;  conception  of  char- 
acter, 214. 

Hedonism,  123  ff.,  147. 

Hegel,  176. 

Heinrici,  C.  F.  G.,  161  note. 

Hellenism,  in  Jesus,  50  note. 

Herod,  148. 

Herrmann,  W.,  26  note,  75  note, 
118  note,  159  note,  181  note. 

Herron,  198  note. 

Hitchcock  and  Brown,  87  note, 
218  note. 

Hobbes,  254. 

Hobson,  J.  A.,  11  note. 

Holtzmann,  H.,  57  note,  61  note, 
115  note,  128  note,  155  note. 

Holtzmann,  O.,  19  note,  2rj  note, 
51  note,  144  note. 

Hopkins,  Mark,  245  note. 

Horton,  R.  F.,  28  note. 

Hosmer,  F.  L.,  273  note. 

Human  nature.faith  of  Jesus  in^ff. 

Hunt,  Holman,  143  note. 

Huxley,  T.,  82  note,  210. 

Hyde,  W.  de  W.,  28  note. 

Idealism,  of  present  age,  164  ff. ;  in 
Christian  character,  223 ;  in  char- 
acter of  Jesus,  226  ff. 

Industrial  system,  redemption  of, 
263,  288  ff. 

Isaiah,  45. 

Jackson,  G.,  28  note. 

Jacoby,  26  note,  46  note,  62  note, 
105  note,  108  note,  132  note,  136 
note,  137  note,  147  note. 

James,  W.,  55  note,  56  note,  101 
note,  106  note,  122  note,  200. 

Jesus  Christ,  imitation  of,  33,  39; 
and  laboring  men,  33 ;  external 
appearance  of,  40 ;  traits  of  char- 
acter, 43  ff.;  asceticism,  45, 
51  ff. ;  strength,  52 ;  insight,  56 ; 
aesthetic  conception  of,  47;  atti- 


tude toward  nature,  60-61 ;  in 
controversy,  62  ff. ;  prodigality  of 
sympathy,  65  ff. ;  solitude  of  soul, 
66  ff.  ;  relation  to  own  family, 
68;  attitude  toward  childhood, 
80  ff  ;  faith  in  humanity,  87  ff.; 
criticisms  of,  154  ff. ;  peacefulness, 
190  ff;  idealism,  223,  226  ff. ; 
essentially  religious,  265  ff. ;  spir- 
itual development  of,  143,  268; 
devotion  to  practical  duty,  270  ff. 

Jesus  Christ,  teaching  of,  its  per- 
sonal quality,  17,  126  ff. ;  ethi- 
cal, 36,  113;  not  rules  but  spirit, 
74  ff,  78  ;  positive  character,  93  ; 
appeals  to  will,  101  ff. ;  compared 
with  Paul,  see  Paul;  elements 
of,  112  ff. ;  relation  to  Old  Testa- 
ment, 113,  120,  131;  condemned 
as  unfitted  for  present  age,  154  ff. ; 
timeless  character  of,  163 ;  non- 
ascetic,  169  ff.  ;  social  conse- 
quences of,  197  ff.  ;  through 
ethics  to  religion,  246  ff. ;  mes- 
sage to  present  age,  292  ff. 

Jowett,  15  note. 

Joy  of  Christian  character,  140  f. 

Judas,  faith  of  Jesus  in,  88. 

Jiilicher,  78  note. 

Justin,  218  note. 

Kaftan,  26  note. 

Kant,  25  note,  100,  244. 

Keats,  61. 

Keim,  43  note,  48  note,  51  note. 

Kempis,  Thomas  a,  202  note. 

Kerr,  C.  H.,  11  note. 

Kidd,  3  note. 

Kingdom  of  God,  summary  of  the 

teachings  of  Jesus,  228  ff. 
Kingsley,  Charles,  82  note,  99  note. 
Kipling,  R.,  224. 
Knight,  W.,  21  note. 
Knowledge,  in  teaching  of  Jesus, 

177. 
Kohler,  H.,  7  note. 
Konig,  43  note. 


298 


INDEX 


Labor  movement,  relation  to  Chris- 
tianity, 32  ff. 

Lassalle,  F.,  80. 

Lecky,  30  note. 

Lessing,  29  note. 

Life,  in  teaching  of  Jesus,  130  ff.; 
not  mere  existence,  132  ff. ;  eter- 
nal, 135  ff. 

Lightfoot,  218  note. 

Lotze,  281  note. 

Love,  in  teaching  of  Jesus,  120 ;  ex- 
pressed by  service,  126 ;  personal 
nature  of,  126  ff. 

Lowell,  J.  R.,  245. 

Loyola,  Ignatius,  172. 

Luthardt,  155  note. 

Luther,  Martin,  55  note,  56  note. 

Mackenzie,  240  note. 

Martensen,  24  note. 

Martineau,  J., 27  note,  177  note,  235, 

236  note,  244  note. 
Marx,  10  note. 
Masaryk,  11  note. 
Materialism,  of  Socialists,  9  ff. 
Matheson,  G.,  28  note. 
Mazzini,  94. 
Mechanism,  social,  14;  in  religious 

work,  280. 
Messianic  conception  of  character 

of  Jesus,  45  ff. 
Mill,  J.  S.,  124,  254. 
Monasticism,  167  ff. 
Morality,  see  Ethics. 
Morley,  291. 
Mozley,  J.  B.,  136  note. 
Miiller,  Julius,  249. 
Mysticism,  181  ff.,  278,  279. 

Nature,  sympathy  of  Jesus  for,  60  ff. 

Newman,  J.  H.,  30  note,  117. 

New  Testament,  casuist  misinter- 
pretation of,  72  ff. ;  dogmatic 
misinterpretation  of,  76  ff. 

Nicodemus,  64, 108. 

Nietzsche,  F.,  159,  160  note,  161 
note,  162, 163, 164,  165. 


Nietzsche's  condemnation  of  Chris- 
tianity, 159  ff. 
Nitti,  7  note,  198  note. 

"  Omar  Khayyam,"  257  note. 
Otto,  27  note,  37  note. 

Palmer,  G.  H.,  241  note,  242  note, 
246  note,  259  note. 

Paradoxes,  of  Christian  character, 
146;  in  teaching  of  Jesus,  199; 
ground  of,  230  ff. 

Patton,  76  note. 

Paul,  conversion  of,  104 ;  teaching 
of,  compared  with  that  of  Jesus, 
60,  105,  134,  149,  216. 

Paulsen,  F.,  46  note,  159  note,  205 
note,  278. 

Peabody,  F.  G.,  1  note,  6  note,  7 
note,  11  note,  129  note,  183  note, 
198  note,  229  note. 

Peacefulness,  of  Jesus,  190  ff. ;  in 
Christian  character,  189  ff. 

Perry,  H.  F.,  35  note. 

Personal  consequences  of  Chris- 
tian character,  154  ff. 

Personal  nature  of  love,  126  ff. 

Pessimism,  161  ff. 

Peter,  faith  of  Jesus  in,  88. 

Pfieiderer,  26  note. 

Pharisaism,  modern  form  of,  82  ff., 
119;  opposed  by  Jesus,  79,  94, 
115  ff. 

Pilate,  98,  230. 

Plato,  15,  49  note,  81. 

Poise,  in  Christian  character,  188. 

Politics,  redemption  of,  263,  288, 
290. 

Positiveness  of  teaching  of  Jesus,  93. 

Power,  in  character  of  Jesus,  52  ff. ; 
as  fruit  of  Christian  character, 
147  ff. 

Present  age,  of  Social  Question, 
I ;  making  trial  of  Christianity, 
2;  demand  for  Christian  char- 
acter, 13  ff.,  151  ff. ;  ethical  tem- 
per of,  32 ;  fitness  of  Christianity 


INDEX 


299 


for,  154  ff.(  280  ff.;  underlying 
idealism  of,  164  ff. ;  conception  of 
social  progress,  221 ;  new  oppor- 
tunities for  religion  in,  287  ff. ; 
message  of  Jesus  to,  292  ff. 

Provincialism,  in  religion,  276  ff. 

Psychology  of  religion,  55  note,  95, 

99. 
Puritanism,  185  ff. 

Rade,  7  note,  26  note,  34  note. 

Ramsay,  W.  M.,  62  note. 

Ratisbonne,  55  note. 

Realism,  modern,  223. 

Reason  and  emotion,  96. 

Receptiveness,  of  Christian  char- 
acter, 84. 

Religion,  and  ethics,  234  ff.,  241  ff. ; 
outgrowth  of  morality,  241  ff. ; 
field  of,  240 ;  incomplete  in  itself, 
274  ff. ;  provincialism  in,  276  ff. 

Renan,  E.,  6  note,  47  note,  62 
note. 

Righteousness,  in  teaching  of  Jesus, 
113  ff. ;  Hebrew  conception  of, 
113  ff.,  116  ff. 

Ritschl,  25  note. 

Rittelmeyer,  161  note. 

Robertson,  F.,  36,  80,  260,  261  note. 

Ropes,  J.  H.,  115  note. 

Rothe,  25  note. 

Royce,  J.,  239  note. 

Ruskin,  J.,  137,  138. 

Sabatier,  240  note. 

Sabbath,  teaching  of  Jesus  as  to, 

227  ff. 
Sacrifice,    in    Christian    teaching, 

199  ff. ;  paradox  of,  203  ff. 
Salter,  W.  M.,  238  note. 
Schaffle,  12  note. 
Schell,  H.,  43  note. 
Schiller,  F.  von,  15. 
Schleiermacher,  25  note,  55  note, 

96  note,  180  note,  183  note. 
Schopenhauer,  155,  156  note,  161. 
Seeley,  J.  R.,  237  note. 


Self-realization  and  sacrifice,  199  ff. 
Sentimentalism,  in  Christian  teach- 
ing, 122. 
Service,   expression  of  love,   126; 

paradox  of,  210. 
Seth,  240  note. 
Shairp,  J.  C,  253  note. 
Shaw,  G.  B.,  161  note. 
Shelley,  P.  B.,  61. 
Sidgwick,  278  note. 
Sime,  16  note. 
Simplicity,  in  Christian  character, 

188  ff. 
Sin,  sense  of,  103  ff. ;  function  of 

this  sense,  109;   Jesus  gives  no 

doctrine  of,  105. 
Smith,  Robertson,  116  note. 
Smyth,  Newman,  25  note. 
Social  consequences  of  Christian 

character,  196  ff. 
Social  order,  true  nature  of,  220  ff. 
Social  progress,  modern  concep- 
tion of,  221. 
Social  Question,  present  interest  in, 

1  ff.;  modern  form  of,  12;  leads 

to  Christian  character,  17. 
Social  struggle  for  existence,  211  ff. 
Socialism,  materialistic  fallacy  of, 

9  ff . ;  as  religion,  289. 
"  Spectator,"  261  note,  262  note. 
Spence,  H.  D.  M.,  43  note. 
Spencer,  H.,  123  note,  124,  207,  208 

note,  209,  210. 
Spencer,  Herbert,  life  as  illustrating 

his  own  ethics,  207  ff. 
St.    Augustine,    28  note,   56  note, 

225. 
Stein,  L.,  47  note. 
Stevens,  G.  B.,  19  note,  28  note,  105 

note,  no  note,  121  note. 
Stevenson,  R.  L.,  74. 
St.  John  of  the  cross,  55  note. 
Strauss,  43  note,  46  note,  47  note,  48 

note,  49  note,  56  note,  155,  156 

note. 
St.  Theresa,  55  note. 
Suffering  in  Christian  life,  142  ff. 


300 


INDEX 


Sympathy,  of  Jesus,  65  ff. 
Synoptic  gospels,  ethical  value  of, 
18  ff. 

"Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apos- 
tles," 87  note,  218  note. 

Temperance,  174. 

Tennyson,  A.,  125,  179,  263  note. 

Theology,  must  be  ethical,  29 ;  true 
conception  of,  282-283. 

Thoma,  A.,  21  note,  23  note,  26 
note. 

Tiberius,  173. 

Tolstoi,  L.,  73  note,  147  note,  156, 
157  note,  158,  159,  162,  163, 
164. 

Tolstoi's  interpretation  of  Chris- 
tianity, 157  ff. 

Troeltsch,  26  note. 

Van  Dyke,  H.,  33  note,  67  note. 
Virtues,  Christian,  219. 


Warschauer,  19  note. 
Washington,  George,  91. 
Wasson,  D.  A.,  254  note. 
Watson,  J.,  92  note. 
Weinel,  44  note,  57  note,  61  note, 

78  note. 
Weiss,  Hermann,  25  note. 
Wellhausen,  27  note,  85  note. 
Wendt,  113  note,  121  note,  134  note, 

137  note. 
Wernle,  21  note,  36  note,  90  note, 

98  note,  108  note,  144  note,  282 

note. 
Wesley,  John,  4,  99  note. 
Whitman,  Walt,  55  note. 
Will,  appeal  of  Jesus  to,  101  ff. 
Wordsworth,  125,  126,  250. 
Wiinsche,  A.,  43  note,  48  note. 
Wundt,  240  note. 
Wuttke,  24  note. 

Zangwill,  I.,  48  note, 


INDEX  OF   BIBLE   PASSAGES 


Acts  ix.  2  .    .    .    . 

x.  36     ... 

xix.  9,  23   .     . 

xxiv.  16     .    . 

xxiv.  25     .    . 
Colossians  i.  20     . 

1  Corinthians  i.  3 

i.  23 
i.  28 
iii.  21-23 
viii.  13 
xv.  57 
xvi.  23 

2  Corinthians  i.  2     . 

i.  12   . 

iv.  18  . 

v.  14  . 

xi.3    . 

xii.  9  . 

xii.  10 

xiii.  10 

Deuteronomy  vi.  5 

vi.  25 

viii.  2 

viii.  3 

x.  19 

Ecclesiastes  vii.  12 

Ephesians  i.  2  .    . 

ii.  14,  17 

ii.  17     . 

iv.  8      . 

iv.  9 

iv.  10    . 

iv.  12,  13,  14 

iv.  15 

Exodus  xx.  11  . 

Ezekiel  xviii.  9  . 

XX.  II  . 


PAGE 

86 

191 

86 
172 

175 
191 
190 

49 
230 
292 
174 
105 
193 
190 
189 
225 
127 
189 
149 

151 
149 
121,  132 


113 
133 
226 
121 
I32 
I90 
I9I 
191 
276 
272 
27I 

139 
I30 

59 
131 
133 
301 


PAGE 

Galatians  i.  3 190 

v.  22 191 

v.  23 175 

vi.  1 129 

vi.  2 216 

Genesis  xxviii.  12 294 

Habakkuk  ii.  4 131 

Hebrews  v.  1 262 

v.  14 262 

xi.  27 230 

Hosea  vi.  6 59,114 

Isaiah  v.  16  . 113 

ix.  7 113 

xi.  2,  4 113 

xxxii.  1 113 

James  i.  26 264 

Jeremiah  xvii.  10 116 

Job  xii.  12 131 

John  i.  4 135 

i.  12 149 

i-  14.  17 193 

i-  Si 294 

iv.  34 101,  226 


v.  30 
vi.33 
vi-35 
vi.53 
vi.  54 
vi.  63 
x.  10 
xii.  24 


101 

J35 

135 

135 

136 

135 

135 

204 

xiii.  3 216 

xiii.  15 216 

xiv.  i,  2 67 

xiv.  23  ff. 135 

xiv.  25,  26 251 

xiv.  27 ...     .    142, 190, 192 

xv.  11 50,  142 


302 


INDEX    OF    BIBLE    PASSAGES 


PAGE 

John  xv.  12 135 

xvi.  7 67 

xvi.  8,  10 134 

xvi.  12 67 

xvi.  33 190, 192 

xvii.  3 136 

xvii.  19 273 

xvii.  19,  20 6 

xvii.  21,  1 270 

xviii.  6 41 

xx.  31 135 

I  John  iv.  7 122 

v.  12, 13 138 

Leviticus  xviii.  5 133 

xix.  18    .    .    .  5,121,132 
xix.  18, 34  .    .    .    .     121 

Luke  i.  79 190 

ii.  14 190 

ii.  40,  51,  52 269 

"•49 234 

iv.  1, 14,  15 274 

iv.  22 193 

iv.  42 270 

v.  4 288 

vi.  23 140 

vii.  47 128,  249 

viii.  10 232 

ix.  22 143 

ix.  23 145, 202 

ix.  24 199 

x.  3 J42 

x.  19 149 

x.  22    .     ...    97,  234,  268 

X.  25 121 

x.  25,  28 132 

X.  27 121 

x.  29,  37 126 

x.  30  ff. 128 

xii.  15 134 

xii.  15,  20,  21     ...    .    226 

xii.  23 134,  226 

xii.  32 227 

xii.  33 171 

xii.  51 190 

xiv.  27 ...    .  145,  199,  202 
xv.  7, 10 107 


PAGE 

Luke  xv.  11 204 

xv.  24 133 

xviii.  17 80 

xviii.  18 136 

xxi.36 145 

xxii.  36 73 

xxii.  42 101 

xxiii.  9 148 

xxiv.  49 251 

xxiv.  47 107 

Mark  i.  14 228 

i.  15 107 

ii.  27 226 

iii.  35 101 

iv.  25 74 

iv.  28 86,  139 

vi.  12 107 

vi.  31 266 

vi.  32 270 

vi.  48 270 

vii.  20-23 lo8 

viii.  27,  31 143 

viii.  34 145, 202 

viii.  35 199 

ix.  1-30 271 

ix.  23,  24 249 

x.  14 106 

x.  15 8o,  106 

x.  17 136 

x.  21   .    .    .    .    .    .    .  171 

xiii.  32 16 

xiii.  34 146 

xiii.  34.  37 *45 

xiv.  6 148 

xv.  31 279 

Matthew  iv.  1-11 106 

iv.  4 *33 

iv.  17 107 

v.  3-18 141 

v.  6 114 

v.  7     .    .    .    .    .    .  205 

v.  11,  12,  13,  14    .    .  143 

v.  12 140 

v.  19 250 

v.  20 114 

v.  21-28 116 


INDEX    OF    BIBLE    PASSAGES 


303 


PAGK 

Matthew  v.  48 141 

vi.  16 140 

vi.  22 189 

vii.  12     ....  59,  250 

vii.  14 134 

vii.  20 140 

vii.  21 101 

vii.  24      ....  72,  246 
viii.  27, 31   .    .    .    .     143 

ix.  13 114 

x.  1 149 

x.  22 142 

x.  34  •    •    •    73*  142,  190 
x.  38   .    .    .    .      142, 202 

x-39 199 

x.  42 140 

xi.  21 107 

xi.  25 97 

xi.  27  .  67,97,234,265,268 

xii-  7 59 

xii.  17 114 

xii.  33 140 

xii.  36 255 

xiii.  11 232 

xiii.  38 6 

xiii.  43 114 

xiv.  13     .    .    .      266, 270 

xiv.  23 266 

xiv.  25 270 

xv.  11 204 

xv.  27,  28     ...    .  249 

xvi.  13 143 

xvi.  19 228 

xvi.  21 144 

xvi.  24     .     .    .      145,  202 
xvi.  25     .    .  134,  145, 199 

xvii.  1-21     ....  271 

xvii.  1,2 266 

xviii.  3    ....  80,  107 

xviii.  4 81 

xix.  8  ff. 59 

xix.  12     ....    .  174 

xix.  14 So 

xix.  16  ff.     ....  136 

xix.  17 134 

xix.  21 171 


PAGB 

Matthew  xx.  14 74 

xx.  17-19     ....  144 

xx.  25 213 

xx.  26 213 

XX.  26,  27      .      .      .      .  211 

xxii.  14 145 

xxiii.  9 265 

xxiv.  13 145 

xxiv.  36 16 

xxiv.  42 145 

xxiv.  46 141 

xxv.  1,  13,  19   .    .    .  145 

xxv.  27 204 

xxv.  28, 30  .    .    .    .  205 
xxv.  34    .    .    .      141,215 

xxv.  34, 40  .    .    .    .  72 

xxvi.  38, 39      .    .    .  142 

xxvi.  39 250 

xxvi.  63 74 

xxvii.  12 148 

xxvii.  42 279 

Micah  vi.  8 120 

Nehemiah  ix.  9 133 

1  Peter  iii.  19,  22 217 

2  Peter  i.  6 175 

Philippians  i.  2 190 

iv.  23 193 

Proverbs  viii.  35    ...    .  131, 132 

x.  17 131 

xii.  28 131 

xiv.  27 131 

xv.  24     ...      131,  132 

xx.  7 214 

xxi.  21 132 

Psalms  xxi.  4 131 

xxx.  5 132 

xxxvi.  9 132 

xxxvii.  37 214 

li.  5 106 

li.  10 116 

lxviii.  18 276 

lxxii.  2 113 

xci.  16 131 

xcvi.  13 113 

cxix.  77,97    .    .    .     .  123 

cxxxi.  2 8a 


304 


INDEX    OF    BIBLE    PASSAGES 


PAGE 

Psalms  cxxxix.  23      ....  116 

Revelation  ii.  7 137 

xxi.  6 137 

xxii.  17    ...     .  137 

Romans  i.  7 190 

iv.  24 76 

v.  9-12 106 

vi.  4 134 

vii.  7-12 104 

viii.  2  .    .    .    .      105,  134 
viii.  6 134 


PAGE 

Romans  x.  3 114 

x-5 133 

xiii.  10 125 

xvi.  20 193 

1  Samuel  xvi.  7 116 

1  Thessalonians  v.  28     .    .     .  193 

2  Thessalonians  iii.  16  .    .    .  191 

1  Timothy  iv.  7 172 

Tobit  iv.  15 59 

Zechariah  viii.  19 120 


The  Religion  of  an  Educated  Man 

THREE  LECTURES 
By   FRANCIS  GREENWOOD   PEABODY 

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Happiness 

ESSAYS  ON  THE  MEANING  OF  LIFE 
By  CARL   HILTY 

University  of  Bern 

Translated  by  FRANCIS  Q.  PEABODY,  D.D. 
Dean  of  the  Divinity  School,  Harvard  University 

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JESUS  CHRIST  AND  THE 
SOCIAL  QUESTION 

An  Examination  of  the  Teaching  of  Jesus  in  its  Relation  to 
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"In  this ' Examination  of  the  Teaching  of  Jesus  in  its  Relation  to  Some 
of  the  Problems  of  Modern  Social  Life,'  Professor  Peabody  begins  with  a 
careful  discussion  of  the  comprehensiveness  of  this  teaching  as  at  once  per- 
fectly  apt  and  adequate  to  every  possible  condition  and  need.  He  then 
considers  the  social  principles  of  this  teaching ;  its  relation  to  the  family, 
to  the  rich,  to  the  care  of  the  poor,  to  the  industrial  order.  The  conclud- 
ing chapter  is  especially  good,  setting  forth  '  the  Correlation  of  the  Social 
Questions.'  It  is  shown  how  this  fact  should  affect  those  who  are  actually 
interested  in  particular  reforms."  —  Times-Herald,  Chicago. 

"  It  is  vital,  searching,  comprehensive.  The  Christian  reader  will  find  it 
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age  or  movement  or  personal  desire  seems  to  itself  to  receive  with  a  pecul- 
iar fulness  its  special  teaching.'  The  unexhausted  gospel  of  Jesus  touches 
each  new  problem  and  new  need  with  its  illuminating  power." 

—  St.  Louis  Globe-Democrat. 

"  A  thoughtful  and  reflective  examination  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus  in 
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